During a recent discussion on the TriStar Gym YouTube channel, coach Firas Zahabi addressed comments made by Kron Gracie dismissing John Danaher, and he did not hold back.
Zahabi, a black belt under Danaher himself, was direct in his response.
“John Danaher, in my opinion, I’ve worked with him directly for many years. I’m a black belt under John Danaher. He is the greatest jiu-jitsu coach of all time and arguably the greatest MMA coach of all time.”
For Zahabi, the evidence is rooted in results. Danaher’s coaching resume in MMA alone is formidable. He worked alongside Zahabi and others in developing Georges St-Pierre into one of the most dominant champions the sport has ever seen. He also had a significant hand in training Chris Weidman and Frankie Edgar, and contributed to the development of countless other athletes throughout his career.
After St-Pierre’s retirement, Danaher narrowed his focus to pure Jiu Jitsu competition, and what followed was nothing short of a revolution. His group, the Danaher D3ath Squad, reshaped how the sport approaches leg locks.
“The man applied his mind on one endeavor and changed the whole face of Jiu Jitsu,” Zahabi said. “People started doing Kani Basami from the bottom, inside heel hook, it became a craze, and that was all John Danaher’s fine tuning. I won’t say he invented it, but he fine tuned it.”
Zahabi was quick to point out that he was not speaking from the outside. He was present as Danaher worked through the technical development of those systems in real time.
“I was there, I was live, I was in the practice room when he was doing it. He was figuring out these leg lock issues from day one.”
The contrast Zahabi draws between Danaher and his critics is sharp. While Kron Gracie has been vocal in questioning Danaher’s credibility and dismissing the work of other practitioners like Demian Maia, Zahabi pointed to Gracie’s own record and asked what lasting contributions he has made to the sport.
“I’ve never heard of a single Kron Gracie student. I’ve never heard of a Kron Gracie MMA star built under Kron Gracie.”
For Zahabi, the proof is in what Danaher has actually built. A coaching legacy that spans world-class MMA champions and a Jiu Jitsu competition team that forced the entire grappling world to rethink its approach to lower body submissions.
“He really changed his approach and he revolutionized the whole system,” Zahabi said.
