Jacob "Jay Rod" Rodriguez is training at Simple Man Martial Arts again.
If you need a second to process that sentence, take your time. The gym's own coach needed a few tries too.
Rodriguez, the ADCC silver medalist and younger brother of Simple Man head coach Nicky Rodriguez, was expelled from B-Team in May 2025 after team leadership discovered he'd been collecting explicit screenshots and images of female teammates. Craig Jones issued a statement about zero tolerance. Rodriguez admitted to "unhealthy interactions with women at the gym" and said he was seeking therapy. Multiple female members spoke publicly about the violation of trust. The community condemned it. The system worked, briefly.
Then B-Team rebranded to Simple Man Martial Arts. Nicky Rod took over as head coach. Craig Jones stepped away. And by December 2025 — less than six months after the expulsion — BJJDoc reported Rodriguez was training at the facility after hours.
Coach Damien Anderson issued a carefully constructed denial: "Jay Rodriguez is not a member of Simple Man Martial Arts, is not part of our team or programs, and does not train during public classes or member hours." Read that again. He's not a member. He doesn't train during public hours. Any limited use of the facility happened outside of classes.
That's not a denial. That's a floor plan.
In March 2026, Rodriguez posted a video of himself training at Simple Man with a date stamp reading 12-10-2025, then claimed it was old footage. The Simple Man logo on the floor mat and wall flag — branding that didn't exist until after the rebrand, which happened after he was expelled — disagreed.
Now he's reportedly back to regular training. About a year out from the original incident. At his brother's gym.
Craig Jones has confirmed he no longer speaks with Simple Man. The gym he co-founded, the zero-tolerance policy he announced — that's someone else's problem now.
The community reaction has split along a line you could've drawn before anyone said a word. One camp argues a year away plus therapy is a reasonable path back, that permanent banishment from the sport isn't realistic, and that people can change. The other camp points out that "a year away" means training at a gym your brother owns, that the gym actively denied his presence while he was there, and that the carefully worded non-denials tell you everything about how seriously the timeout was taken.
"Now I know what gym I'll never train at nor leave women at," one commenter wrote. Multiple women responded that women's jiu-jitsu "has taken a step back."
This isn't really a debate about whether Jay Rodriguez should ever train again. It's about who gets to define consequences. Because right now, the answer is: the accused person's brother, at the accused person's gym, on the accused person's schedule.
The gym's name is Simple Man. The situation is anything but.
Related Stories
Sources
- Nicky Rod's brother banned from B-Team for inappropriate interactions with women — MMA Mania
- Cancelled in BJJ: Jay Rodriguez Breaks Silence on B-Team Ban — BJJEE
- Jay Rod Training at Simple Man After Hours — BJJDoc
- Jay Rod Date Stamp Video Contradicts Old Footage Claim — BJJDoc
- B-Team Female Member Opens Up After Jay Rod's Expulsion — BJJEE
- Gordon Ryan Claims Craig Jones Lacks Loyalty Over Jay Rod Story — BJJDoc
This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked above. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.