EFFORTPOST [Effortpost] Drama in pyjamas (feat. 46 million dollar lawsuit, Sharktank, and r/BJJ) NICHE HOBBY DRAMA

TLDR;

• BJJ (Brazilian JiuJitsu) is a martial art which is basically Judo with a different ruleset, if you never watched Judo then just pretend it's bruce lee shit idc

• Getting a black belt in BJJ takes about 10 years and the subreddit forces you to verify with pictures (sadly no baiting)

• Jack Ryan Greener is a "beginner" who gets Paralyzed doing BJJ 4 years ago by his instructor

• You're probably wondering how a dude got paralyzed while doing karate. Here is an instagram llink of the leaked video. Not enough gore for WPD but still kinda fricked up how he just falls down limp.

• The instructor is called Francisco "Sinistro" Iturralde, noone remembers that shit so I will just call him the instructor

• Jack Greener wins a gigantic lawsuit, over what appears to be a freak accident

• During the trial he gets a testimony from a guy called Rener Gracie who is a massive grifter

• Redditors grab pitchforks against Rener Gracie

Part 0

This story begins 4 months ago, when people discover the story of Jack Greener. He makes a post on LinkedIn which I can't post here because @funkykongpathianflorist is a dramaphobe. He describes how 4 years ago, his Black Belt Jiu Jitsu instructor forcefully broke his neck. Resulting in him being paralyzed from the neck down at the C4 vertebrae. A very tragic accident. Luckily the LinkedIn link gets posted in the /r/BJJ subreddit, but there aren't many reactions because of the lack of details.

There was also a story in the LA times about him but it doesn't mention BJJ.

But more recently the news broke out. Mr Greener go awarded 46 MILLION after a lawsuit over his injury.

Part 1: the news breaks

• TLDR; Jack Greener is not a beginner, nor is he fully paralyzed anymore. However his injuries were still kinda fricked up.

https://old.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/126n0ea/san_diego_jury_awards_paralyzed_jiujitsu_student/

The initial reaction is that the instructor was careless

If you are a seasoned black belt and spar a beginner in one of his first classes you should be able to keep it save for the guy. No need to do risky moves….

But quickly people smell that something is off, on his instagram he can be seen recovered quite a bit https://instagram.com/paralyzedtopeaks/ (now private). His injuries where real but recovered quite a bit.

I personally rolled with Jack, when he got injured he had 3-4 years of wrestling and was an almost 3 year white belt. He was not a beginner and was actually really tough to roll against.

It seems like Jack Greener wasn't quite the beginner he was made out to be. Turns out he had wrestled for years in highschool and had done BJJ for several years on top of that.

Part 2: spergout beginnings

• TLDR; Some blackbelt on reddit hates Rener Gracie, he thinks it was a freak accident and he notes how Jack Greener was not a beginner

https://old.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/127qt18/i_have_seen_the_video_and_received_insider_info/

Some blackbelt makes a longpost with his opinion about all of this. TLDR; he thinks it's a freak accident and he thinks Rener Gracie is a parasite

>..Rener Gracie is out of control money and attention hungry parasite. I need some additional clarification and details here before I can blast him properly on the merits of what he said. I know some, and it’s infuriating. Baisically Rener is putting the way that 95%+ of the BJJ community runs an academy on trial and representing his very left field views as mainstream. This has implications for ALL OF US because his side won. For expert witnesses testimony he billed at $3000/hour. He billed 42 hours. He was the charismatic and well spoken star expert witness that sealed the deal for the prosecution. I never cuss….and I want to at that. Parasite.

Part 3: who is Rener Gracie?

• TLDR; Rener Gracie is a slick salesman who shills his philosophy, and has controversial opinions about when people should spar (sparring = practise fighting)

Rener Gracie is one of the eldest grandsons of "Grand Master" Helio Gracie, the creator of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. They call it Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and not Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, because apparently that is very important for their brand. They sell their brand as the "real" way to do the sport, and have a very guru like attitude about it. They also founded "Gracie University" where you can learn BJJ online, they have own special belt and they preach about some list of 32 principles. The concensus on reddit is that the online university is a literal scam:

Reddit: Has anyone had someone with a Gracie Online Blue Belt come to their gym?

All the answers are people pooping on them, after all how can you expect to learn a sport online?

Rener Gracie was on shark tank to sell a hoodie that turns into a backpack? This guy can sell anything lmao

Rener Gracie is extremely opiniated about sparring ("his very left field views"). He thinks students shouldn't spar (practise fight) for 6+ months for "safety reasons". It appears that this is not the status quo in the sport, where most will spar as soon as day 1. If you care to listen here is a smarmy video of him advertising his program. This is extremely important for the story going forward, because as we know Jack Greener is not a beginner by any stretch. He gets categorized as such for his 46 million dollars and for Rener to shill his program.

Part 4: Grifter Jiu-Jitsu

Here is where things start going south. Ill try to give a short list of why people are mad:

• Rener charged $3000/h for his work during the trial, netting him $93K reddit thread

• Rener described the technique used by the instructor ad dangerous and unnecessary, despite it being popularized by his own uncle, among other things Reddit thread

• Mr Greene Describes the move as "illegal" on his website, even though it isn't

• The lawsuit states the instructor "spiked" the victim, even though the video clearly isn't "spiking"

• Rener Gracie clearly used this opportunity to shill his own philosophy in a court of law (sigma)

Part 5: random seethe

Angry thread: I didn't have a ton of respect for Rener Gracie before today, but now I have none.

Outright said it is industry standard for white belts to be segregated from upper belts for rolling. Blatant lie. His description of the back take. Blatant lie.

I would love to see a group of experienced black belts contact the local DA and let them know that they believe Rener perjured himself. He needs to be held accountable for his actions.

ya bro, just do go to the DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S office for a negligence case impeachment of a plaintiff's expert witness testimony admitted to trial from a deposition transcript. Jesus christ.

I don’t know who the defense put up as their witnesses but the name Gracie probably means jiu jitsu to some people, particularly laymen.

The defense had Clark Gracie as their expert witness.

Angry thread 2: Exact amount Rener made was $93,000 billed at $3000/hour. Official document

Man he really did him dirty. Frick Rener.

What I don't understand is, how can Rener be an expert witness in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu when he does Gracie Jiu-jitsu?

Wasn't his whole life purpose to differentiate the difference between Gracie jiu-jitsu and Brazilian jiu-jitsu?

Basically Rener was an expert called on in a civil court case where a black belt rolled w a white belt and put his weight on the guys neck in a way that paralysed him - he has now recovered to SOME degree in the sense that I think he can walk but has lifelong damage to his spine and stuff.

Anyways Rener was paid as an expert and he said that this was a dangerous move and was not recognised as a legit technique in the bjj community etc. However not everyone agrees with this analysis as the video is publicly available and it let to a $46 million payout if I recall correctly which led to even greater controversy.

Another TLDR by a random redditor because why the frick not

Anyway this random gym obviously doesn't have 46 million dollars, I hope they have good insurance.