Professor John Renken started fighting professionally in the mid-1990s, when jiu-jitsu was barely known in the US, his own jiu-jitsu instructor was a blue belt, and he could walk into an event with no weight classes and face men twice his size. Coming from Taekwondo, Thai boxing and Judo, where he became a third-degree black belt, and a stint in the Army from 1993 to 1996, he learned leg locks from Pancrase tapes before training jiu-jitsu in Minneapolis with Greg Nelson. He went on to spend 20 years teaching Special Forces soldiers to fight, and has worked for himself for almost all of his adult life.

John argues that combat sports are not violence, since no one's rights are violated, and calls the cage door closing the most exciting moment there is because there is no one else to blame. He tells of being choked unconscious five times in a row rather than tap while hunting for a counter, a biting, eye-gouging opponent that referee Tito Ortiz would not disqualify, and how Army combatives adds guns, knives and dogs to the scenario. He shares a student's choke that captured a wanted man alive and, by his account, saved hundreds of lives, and makes the case for grit, optimism and jiu-jitsu as therapy.

In this episode

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:10 Meet Professor John Renken
• 3:19 MMA before jiu-jitsu was known
• 8:37 Why fighting isn't violence
• 10:41 Choked out five times rather than tap
• 12:53 Dirty fighters and a bad referee
• 18:13 Teaching Special Forces to fight
• 26:31 Grit and staying humble
• 29:45 Training as the body ages
• 31:50 Grit as an entrepreneur
• 37:13 Always believing he could win
• 42:35 A choke that saved lives
• 47:56 Jiu-jitsu as therapy
• 51:07 Training with the lights out

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