In this episode of the Fighting Matters podcast, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ and Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ on the eve of America's 250th Fourth of July. They open with whether there's anything left to celebrate and end up somewhere harder: the same instinct to look away that got the country here is alive in jiu-jitsu too. The clearest example is Izaak Michell, invited to ADCC while wanted in Texas on sexual assault warrants, and the string of accused and convicted men the sport keeps platforming anyway.

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- The Find Out Podcast, "Ex-MAGA influencer explains why he abandoned Trump" — https://youtu.be/ylPlpgQygdU
- Magic BJJ — https://magicbjj.com

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- America's 250th and the state of the July 4th "celebration"
- Rebuilding the country instead of defending the old institutions
- The normalization that links national politics to jiu-jitsu
- Izaak Michell, his ADCC invite, and the Texas arrest warrants
- Josh Saunders, Nazi salutes, and the "keep it non-political" excuse
- Why "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't settle the ethics
- How the sport risks going radioactive the way MMA once did
- Redemption tours, silence, and what speaking up actually does

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Big heads, Ace of Bass, and July 4th
02:40 — America's 250th: did the country even make it?
06:33 — Rebuilding the country, not restoring it
10:29 — Mask-off politics, the courts, and the truth
18:23 — How a MAGA influencer's fever broke
20:36 — Holding your nose, in politics and on the mats
24:10 — Who is Izaak Michell, and why ADCC invited him
30:01 — Josh Saunders and "keep it non-political"
35:34 — "Innocent until proven guilty" isn't a free pass
40:15 — What happened to MMA could happen to jiu-jitsu
44:47 — What will you tell your grandkids?
49:19 — No clean leagues left for ethical athletes
51:44 — The redemption tour: Tyson, McGregor, and ADCC
53:07 — What we can actually do about it
56:50 — Closing thoughts and where to find everyone

In this episode of Fighting Matters, co-hosts Jesse Walker and Mike Mahaffey take on Conor McGregor's UFC comeback and the media tour selling it: a man found civilly liable for sexual assault, platformed on Jimmy Fallon like none of it happened, with no apology and no amends. They get into what redemption actually requires, why comedians stopped holding power to account, and the jiu-jitsu community's own habit of looking the other way when the person on the podium has hurt people.

⸻

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- Old Bastard BJJ on Patreon — https://patreon.com/oldbastardbjj
- Old Bastard BJJ on Instagram — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://magicbjj.com

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Conor McGregor's UFC comeback and the media tour behind it
- Why the media keeps platforming people who have caused harm
- What real redemption requires, and why owning the harm is the price of it
- Whether some actions put someone past the point of a comeback
- How late-night hosts and comedians stopped holding power to account
- What your attention and your money actually endorse
- The jiu-jitsu community's habit of platforming people it shouldn't

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Welcome and teeing up the topic
01:16 — McGregor's comeback, and how he got here
04:47 — Turning MMA trash talk up to eleven
08:25 — Pro wrestling, except the harm is real
10:27 — The fall and the Hollywood comeback
13:23 — Does anyone deserve a comeback?
15:27 — Redemption means owning the harm
20:43 — What Mike learned in vocational rehab
26:12 — Our court jesters are failing us
32:36 — When "comedy is back" means punching down
36:37 — No redemption, and whose pocket you fill
47:33 — The IBJJF problem, and being a thoughtful consumer
55:38 — Where to find Jesse and Mike

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ to talk about the fallout from UFC Freedom 250, the fight card staged on the White House lawn for America's 250th anniversary. Neither of them watched it, because the fights were never the issue. They get into the corruption, the crypto payouts, the comment aimed at Michelle Obama, and why "keeping politics out of fighting" was never a real argument once the President turned the country's 250th birthday into his own fight night.

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Why UFC Freedom 250 was a problem even if the fights were good
- The difference between promoting a sport and running a propaganda event
- Crypto payouts and the "company store" comparison
- The comment aimed at Michelle Obama, and why it was deliberate
- Free speech absolutism as a dodge
- The alleged Daniel Cormier and Eric Trump text exchange about fixed fights
- The paradox of tolerance and why you can't platform extremists
- What the UFC would have to do to win fans like Steve and Jesse back

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — What UFC Freedom 250 actually was
05:05 — A for-profit event on the people's lawn
09:10 — Defending the UFC as legitimate sport
14:48 — Propaganda, grift, and crypto payouts
16:40 — The Obama basketball tournament test
22:29 — Was it worth it for the UFC?
27:05 — MMA is an immigrant story
31:05 — The Michelle Obama comment was deliberate
41:26 — Free speech absolutism as moral cowardice
45:52 — The alleged Cormier and Eric Trump texts
51:54 — You can't break bread with extremists
59:33 — What would fix the UFC?
01:07:56 — Where to find Jesse Walker

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Jeff Shaw is joined by Jesse Walker, Mike Mahaffey, and Stephan Kesting to take apart UFC Freedom 250, the card being staged on the White House South Lawn on June 14th. Four martial artists who spent decades loving this sport walk through why an event at the people's house, held on the president's birthday and billed as a celebration of America's 250th, leaves them cold. They get into the spectacle, the money, the sportswashing angle, and the version of this card that could have meant something.

⸻

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- Old Bastard BJJ Pride Month Fundraiser — https://patreon.com/oldbastardbjj
- Salus Center — https://www.saluscenter.org
- Growing Veterans — https://growingveterans.org

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Jeff Shaw — https://bellinghambjj.com
- Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj
- Stephan Kesting — https://grapplearts.com

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Why a UFC card at the White House reads as fascist spectacle
- The June 14th birthday timing and the "America 250" cover story
- The "keep politics out of sports" double standard
- Empty seats, military tickets, and who foots the bill
- Cage fights as diplomacy, and what sportswashing really is
- Theodore Roosevelt, immigration, and the event this could have been
- What MMA lost when it stopped being outsider art

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Introducing the panel
02:40 — Fascism, spectacle, and macho posturing
04:30 — A birthday dressed as an anniversary
07:05 — Theater and a regime that believes in nothing
10:16 — Dead enthusiasm and a tourism slump
14:09 — Empty seats, military tickets, and June heat
16:32 — Rogan ringside and bread and circuses
18:53 — Who pays, and who gets held accountable
25:41 — But Roosevelt did it too
30:06 — Cage fights as diplomacy and sportswashing
34:53 — How you'd do it right, and why they can't
40:13 — Can this work at the White House at all?
46:18 — Outsider art and what's been lost

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan talks with Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ about the trans hate pouring out of combat sports, and the fighters who have figured out it pays. They start with Sean Strickland's AI video of himself beating up a trans woman, then get into why guys like Strickland and Jake Shields keep posting this stuff: it riles up a certain kind of fan, and that attention is the product. Recorded during Pride Month, it is also about what the jiu-jitsu community owes its trans members, who take the brunt of this.

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- Old Bastard BJJ on Patreon (buy "Introduction to Base" in June, all proceeds go to the Salus Center) — https://patreon.com/oldbastardbjj
- Salus Center, Lansing — https://www.saluscenter.org

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Sean Strickland's anti-trans AI video and the threat behind it
- How the "fairness in women's sports" debate gets used as cover for violence
- Active clubs, fascism, and the far right's foothold in fight sports
- Mike's advocacy work and the threats it brings
- The harassment trans grapplers face just for showing up to train
- Why fighters profit from anti-trans content
- Why "keep politics out of jiu-jitsu" is a cop-out
- Raising a trans daughter and changing minds through storytelling

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Welcome and why a Pride episode
02:26 — The Strickland video and the "fairness" cover
08:47 — Active clubs and the far right in fight sports
11:20 — Mike's advocacy and the threats it draws
17:46 — Spite-based activism and trans grapplers under attack
22:30 — Why fighters monetize trans hate
30:04 — Staying neutral is a choice, and the politics myth
34:08 — Pride, gender, and changing norms
40:17 — You don't have to get it to defend it
42:36 — Mike on supporting your trans friends and family
47:35 — Why martial artists have to speak up
51:06 — Mike's fundraiser for the Salus Center

In this episode of the Fighting Matters podcast, Steve Kwan is joined by Jeff Shaw of Bellingham BJJ, Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ, and Dr. Clayton Green, a board-certified dermatologist and BJJ practitioner. They get into what happened at UFC BJJ when Mikey Musumeci defended his title against Kevin Dantzler with an active staph infection, went back to the hospital right after the match, and defended the decision by saying he had covered the infection with spats. The conversation covers why staph is more dangerous than people realize, how the UFC has stopped fights like this before but didn't this time, and what gyms and competitors can actually do to be safer.

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- NFHS Wrestling Skin Lesion Form — https://a-us.storyblok.com/f/1022696/x/87b3155d73/2025-26-nfhs-wrestling-skin-lesion-form-final-april-2025.pdf

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Jeff Shaw — https://bellinghambjj.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://www.instagram.com/oldbastardbjj
- Dr. Clayton Green

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- What happened at UFC BJJ and Mikey's hospital readmission
- Why "I covered it with spats" isn't a defense
- How close Ben Askren came to dying from MRSA
- Whether BJJ is losing community knowledge about infection risk
- How pandemic-era science denial is showing up in jiu-jitsu
- How the UFC stopped fights like this before, and didn't this time
- The wrestling skin check form and how gyms can use it
- Institutional accountability vs dogpiling on the athlete

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Introducing the panel
02:39 — What happened at UFC BJJ
05:16 — Spats aren't condoms
10:09 — How dangerous staph actually is
18:08 — Are we losing community knowledge about infection risk?
25:21 — Why didn't the UFC stop this?
26:34 — Pandemic-era science denial in BJJ
33:13 — The wrestling skin check form
36:45 — How gyms model and enforce safer behavior
40:48 — Advice for young competitors under pressure
50:22 — Institutional accountability vs dogpiling the athlete
53:02 — Closing thoughts

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined again by Dr. David Riedman: 17-year jiu-jitsu practitioner, MIT-trained data analyst, and PhD researcher whose dissertation focused on measuring the accuracy of large language model outputs. David is also the author of the Riedman Report, one of the most popular Substacks on risk, AI, education, and security. The conversation is broken into three parts. Part one is a broad explanation of what modern AI actually is and how it works. Part two covers the cultural and social impact of AI on public life. Part three is about how AI will affect the business of jiu-jitsu and the people who train and run gyms. Steve walks out of the conversation with a take he didn't expect: martial artists may be in a stronger position than people working in tech.

⸻

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- The Riedman Report — https://riedmanreport.substack.com
- K-12 School Shooting Database — https://k12ssdb.org

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Dr. David Riedman — https://riedmanreport.substack.com

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Why LLMs don't actually think, and why that matters
- The political split on AI adoption and why both sides are partially right
- Where AI genuinely helps a small business and where it creates risk
- Model drift, context dilution, and how guardrails break down in long conversations
- Why AI tutorials and AI video can't teach jiu-jitsu
- What it means for a sport without a unified registry when anyone can fabricate credentials
- The trillion-dollar lock-in: why we may be stuck with LLMs even if they don't work
- Why human-service work like coaching may be more durable than tech work

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Reintroducing Dr. David Riedman
03:25 — PART 1: What modern AI actually is
15:39 — Why a confident-looking LLM output can still be wrong
23:12 — PART 2: The cultural and social impact of AI
35:09 — When the stakes are too high to outsource
42:09 — When AI is used to plan a war
50:54 — Model drift and how the guardrails erode
58:23 — PART 3: AI and the business of jiu-jitsu
01:03:11 — Automating the soul out of your gym
01:14:20 — The trillion-dollar bet on a tool that may not work
01:22:06 — Three futures and none of them are good
01:29:46 — What gym owners and practitioners should actually do

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Andrea Tang: novelist, brown belt at District Martial Arts, and host of BJJ Today on the BJJ Mental Models Premium Network. Three years ago, a serial home invader broke into Andrea's apartment at 4am and tried to sexually assault her in bed. She fought him off using day-one white belt basics. This is a conversation about that night, the years of court proceedings that followed, and what watching the BJJ community treat survivors has taught her about who actually has the courage to speak up.

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Andrea Tang — https://andreatangwrites.com

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Surviving a home invasion at 4am using basic jiu-jitsu
- What the court process actually looks like for sexual assault survivors
- Why women don't speak up, even with airtight cases
- The "porcupine strategy" and why white belt basics matter most in real attacks
- Why stranger violence and instructor abuse should not be treated as the same problem
- The identity crisis that hits women martial artists when they become victims
- How women in combat sports absorb toxic masculinity (and why it costs them)
- Busting the "no woman could beat a man" myth

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Welcome and book plug
02:29 — The night a stranger broke in
06:02 — The aftermath and the marks it leaves
09:26 — What the court process actually costs survivors
12:52 — Why so few women ever speak up
26:15 — When muscle memory wakes up before your brain does
33:53 — The porcupine strategy: being a hard target
39:50 — Stranger attacker vs. instructor abuser
44:28 — When the victim is a martial artist
48:56 — Toxic masculinity isn't a men's thing
55:47 — What jiu-jitsu is actually for

After yet another sexual abuse case in the BJJ community, the Fighting Matters crew works through a question every grappler eventually has to answer: "What can I, as just a student, actually do about this?" They get into voting with your wallet, the black belt blackmail trap, why we're great at sweating into each other's eyeballs but terrible at conversations, and Mike's framework for delivering hard feedback without lighting the gym on fire.

🔗 Links Mentioned:
• Magic BJJ — https://magicbjj.com
• Rough Hands BJJ — https://roughhandsbjj.com
• BJJ Mental Models — https://bjjmentalmodels.com

⸻

👥 Featuring:
• Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
• Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com
• Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
• Why stewardship of the culture isn't just the gym owner's job
• Voting with your wallet when your coach is the problem
• The black belt blackmail trap and how to leave anyway
• Why jiu-jitsu people are terrible at having actual conversations
• Mike's framework for delivering hard feedback without making it personal
• When to take it to the coach vs. when to take it public
• Jesse's "spectrum of seriousness" and why proportionality matters
• Culture guardianship vs. mat enforcer culture
• Why culture is what you tolerate, not what you preach

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — A regular student's guide to fixing the sport
02:29 — Stewardship doesn't require owning a school
03:31 — Vote with your wallet
07:56 — Weeks from black belt and the school is rotten
11:17 — Belt blackmail and the myth of permanent lineage
14:45 — Jesse's wild Rio re-belting story
18:49 — We sweat together but won't talk to each other
20:27 — The basic social skills problem in jiu-jitsu
26:46 — Why exit interviews and gym feedback both fail
28:34 — How to receive feedback without killing the next one
30:49 — Jesse's conflict aversion confession
32:04 — Mike's framework: name the behaviour, use I-statements
38:59 — Going public vs. going to the coach first
43:47 — The spectrum of seriousness
50:53 — Spotlighting the good in the community
54:48 — Culture guardianship, not mat enforcement
59:39 — Culture is what you tolerate

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker (Rough Hands BJJ), Mike Mahaffey (Old Bastard BJJ), and Niamh Bryn (Snowblind BJJ) for a recap of the recent Rough Hands spring camp in Louisville. The four of them argue that the best jiu-jitsu camps are not the ones that cram the most jiu-jitsu in, and that the celebrity instructor model has quietly priced out and burned out the people the sport depends on.

🔗 Links Mentioned:
- Gi to Sea (Jeff Shaw, Bernardo Faria, Dominyka Obelenyte) — https://bjjmentalmodels.com/events

⸻

👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://www.instagram.com/oldbastardbjj
- Niamh Bryn — https://www.instagram.com/snowblindbjj

⸻

🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Why the best parts of a BJJ camp happen off the mat
- The celebrity instructor model and how it prices out the average attendee
- Why regional and lesser-known coaches often deliver more value
- Filtering out bad actors, harassers, and extremists at camps and gyms
- Cultural guardianship: why a head coach can't enforce culture alone
- People who train jiu-jitsu instead of getting therapy
- The collaborative camp format vs the one-marquee-instructor format
- How travel and out-of-region training expose your blind spots

⸻

📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Welcome and intros
02:06 — Recap of the Rough Hands spring camp
04:13 — Less jiu-jitsu, more community time
05:21 — Niamh on jiu-jitsu peripheral events
07:21 — Why getting out of your regional bubble matters
09:15 — Mike: the friendships are why I keep training
12:20 — The celebrity instructor problem
20:54 — Reliable community as camp infrastructure
26:34 — Healthcare, insurance, and traveling for jiu-jitsu
28:36 — Filtering out the bad actors
35:47 — What we actually mean by filtering
41:00 — Niamh on training for the wrong reasons
46:56 — Cultural guardianship at scale
54:20 — The collaborative camp model
58:07 — Plugs, outros, and where to find everyone
1:00:53 — Plugging Gi to Sea with Jeff Shaw