Nick Rodriguez - The BJJ Black Belt Superstar

Nick Rodriguez is a wrestler and a BJJ black belt athlete under John Danaher. He has also worked extensively with coach Jay Regalbuto. In Jiu-Jitsu, he is renowned as Nicky Rod or the Black Belt Slayer. He became famous after winning a silver IBJJF World Championship at Blue Belt. He is a 2x winner of the most challenging BJJ event, the ADCC World Championship. Rodriguez is an ultra-heavyweight fighter well known for his back attacks on opponents. Currently, Rodriguez is associated with B-Team.

Nicky Rodriguez was born on August 30, 1996, in Clayton, New Jersey, United States. He received his early education from the community public school, Clayton High School. He joined several sports teams along with wrestling in sixth grade. However, wrestling was something he was most interested in. In one of his interviews, he said:

After participating in wrestling tournaments in school, he ranked 7th in the state. He decided to apply for an athletic college scholarship. He eventually qualified for the NJSIAA championship.

Nick enrolled in Ferrum College in Virginia and continued wrestling for one year. During his freshman year, he had a wrestling record of 34-4. After one year, he realized that education was not for him, so he left college and moved on to pursue his career in modeling. He worked with the Wilhelmina Models Agency. At the same time, he started training Jiu-Jitsu. He once shared the reason for joining Jiu-Jitsu.

In 2018, Rodriguez’s friend convinced him to join Jiu-Jitsu. He began his training at Ricardo Almeida’s Gym under Jay Regalbuto. After training just for two weeks, he entered the Grappling Industries: WildWood Tournament, where he defeated all his opponents. Later, he joined Tom DeBlass’s Gym and continued his training. After a few months, he started training under John Danaher at Renzo Gracie Academy. Danaher promoted him to blue belt.

In 2018, Nick Rodriguez competed in the IBJJF World Championship NoGi in the blue belt division. He beat all three opponents via submission and took the gold medal home. Regalbuto knew his student’s potential skills. He, therefore, wanted Rodriguez to train under multiple teams.

In 2019, Rodriguez worked under Danaher at Danaher’s Death Squad when he qualified for the world’s most challenging grappling tournament, the ADCC World Championship, after winning the ADCC North American Trials. He competed against top BJJ black belt athletes Mohmmad Aly, Robert Cyborg Abreu, and Orlando Sanchez and made his way into the finals, where he lost to Kanyan Duarte but won a silver medal. At the podium, Jay Regalbuto promoted him to purple belt. It was the day that he got his nickname, the Black Belt Slayer.

In July 2021, Danaher announced that Danaher Death Squad is shutting down due to multiple factors. In August 2021, Rodriguez announced his new team, The B-Team, which he formed along with his DDS training partners Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, and Ethan Crelinsten in Austin, Texas. In June 2022, Rodriguez’s training partners promoted him to brown belt. Shortly after, he was invited by the ADCC to compete in the 2022 tournament. Rodriguez competed in the ADCC Championship against the best grapplers, but in the finals, he lost to Gordan Ryan and won the silver medal.

After five years of practicing Jiu-Jitsu, the professional elite wrestler and BJJ grappler, Nick Rodriguez was promoted to black belt on December 23, 2023, by his training partners Nicky Ryan, Craig Jones, and Ethan Crelinsten. This black belt was a massive achievement in his BJJ career. Rodriguez shared his achievement on Instagram.

On April 24, 2023, Nick Rodriguez shared that he was trying to be a part of the World Wrestling Entertainment and has been accepted. From the news he shared, he seems excited to make his transaction in WWE. He also mentioned that he has gained so much popularity through BJJ that everyone now knows who he is.

At B-Team Training Academy, Jacob Rodriguez, his younger brother, is also getting trained under him, preparing him to become the next Nick Rodriguez.

In the 2019 ADCC World Championship, a grappling match was held between Nick Rodriguez and the 5th-degree black belt Jiu-jitsu fighter Robert Cyborg Abreu. Abreu began the match with his guard game; he pulled a close guard followed by a butterfly guard. Abreu tried his tactics to bring down his opponent but failed as Rodriguez was quite strong. Abreu started rolling and eventually threw Rodriguez on the mat, but Rodriguez trapped his opponent, performed some of his acrobatic stuff, and attacked Abbreu, winning the fight via Referee’s Decision.

In the 2019 ADCC World Championship, Nick Rodriguez competed against one of the most successful heavyweight grapplers, Mohammad Aly. Both competitors were robust and tried hard for submission, but at the same time, they were using defensive strategies, so none of them got their hips down on the mats. With just a few seconds left for the fight to end, Rodriguez performed a flip, took down his opponent, and won the match.

In the 2022 ADCC World Championship, the final match occurred between Nick Rodriguez and the three-time ADCC champion, Gordon Ryan. Ryan quite gently attempted a guard position and, with his knee pressure, held on to his opponent with his knee pressure. He submitted Rodriguez via outside heel hook and won the gold.

Orlando Sanchez vs Nick Rodriguez - 2019 ADCC World Championships

FULL MATCH: Felipe Pena vs Nicky Rod - Tezos WNO: Pena vs Rodriguez Main Event

Nick Rodriguez vs John Hansen - 2022 ADCC World Championships

Nick Rodriguez vs Damon Ramos | 2022 ADCC World Championships

Photo credit: @nickyrod247