Brian McLaughlin tells the story of being a frail chess club member in high school to becoming a professional MMA fighter. He also talks about the early days of BJJ in NY, being a TUF season 8 cast member and his competition rivalry with Ryan Hall. Click “Read More” for show notes! SHOW NOTES:

• Origins
• Growing up small in a tough neighborhood
• His first day of “South American Ground Karate” (BJJ)
• Being humbled by a female practitioner
• Managing nerves and inner doubts
• His passion for chess
• Pursuing Jiu-Jitsu knowledge in the early US scene
• The struggle never ends
• Cross training Wrestling
• Leaving your base style behind when learning a new one
• Ask questions and take notes!
• Takedowns and pinning
• Demian Maia
• “Training room champions”
• Khabib Nurmagomedov
• Russians
• Gymnastics for grappling
• David Karchmer
• His grappling rivalry with Ryan Hall
• Rivalries in Jiu-Jitsu
• The Pummel
• Kids have no filter
• His path to becoming a teacher
• Pitfalls of academy ownership
• The most important students a teacher has
• Learntograpple.com
• Rose Gracie doesn’t play!
• Goals for the future