Ethan Crelinsten's path to becoming one of Canada's most accomplished submission grapplers began unusually late by elite athletic standards. With no background in competitive sport as a child, he had his first contact with any athletic discipline at the age of 19, drawn to mixed martial arts by the wave of enthusiasm that cage fighting was generating across Canada at the time. His earliest training took place at a small local gym where the curriculum was confined to striking and wrestling — a functional foundation in combat sports, but one that offered no exposure to the ground-based discipline that would ultimately define his career.

The turning point came when Crelinsten made the move to TriStar Gym in Montreal, under head coach Firas Zahabi. It was there that jiu-jitsu entered his training regimen for the first time. What began as a supplementary element of an MMA education gradually consumed his competitive ambitions entirely. Drawn far more deeply to the technical and strategic demands of submission grappling than to the broader context of mixed martial arts, Crelinsten made the deliberate decision to pivot fully toward no-gi submission grappling as his primary sport.

Firas Zahabi remained a central figure in Crelinsten's development throughout his colored belt career, overseeing every belt promotion from white through brown. The connection that would extend his education to New York came through Tom Breese, a TriStar-affiliated fighter who arranged for Gordon Ryan — one of John Danaher's most decorated students — to conduct a fight camp at TriStar. Ryan's technical command on the mat left a lasting impression on Crelinsten, prompting him to seek out Danaher's instruction directly at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York.

Under the joint guidance of Zahabi and Danaher, Crelinsten developed at an accelerating pace, earning his place within the elite Danaher Death Squad while still competing as a colored belt. His progression drew enough attention to earn him a profile on BJJ Heroes before his black belt promotion — making him the first athlete to appear on the site without holding a black belt. In November 2020, John Danaher formally awarded Crelinsten his black belt, with Nicky Ryan receiving the same promotion on the same occasion.

ADCC Qualifying Dominance

Crelinsten's competitive record during his colored belt years served as the clearest measure of his accelerating development. His victory at the ADCC West Coast Trials in 2017 announced him as a genuine contender at a level that few athletes reach before earning a black belt. He followed that result with a win at the 2018 ADCC East Coast Trials, a back-to-back run through ADCC qualifying competition that drew widespread attention across the no-gi community. What distinguished these performances was not simply the results themselves, but the fact that Crelinsten was routinely defeating established professional athletes at a stage when most competitors are still refining foundational technique.

Broader No-Gi Circuit Activity

His activity across the wider no-gi circuit reinforced the credentials built at ADCC qualifying events. Crelinsten competed at the ADCC World Championships, appeared on the Kasai Pro and Polaris stages, and collected invitational titles at the Jitz King Invitational in 2020, the Finishers Sub-Only series, the Sapateiro Invitational, and the Ultimate Mat Warriors event. He also reached the final of the BJJ Fanatics 170lbs Grand Prix and the P-Belum Invitational in 2020. In 2023, he returned to ADCC qualifying competition and placed third at the ADCC East Coast Trials, demonstrating continued relevance at the top of the qualification ladder years after his initial breakthroughs.

In July 2021, John Danaher publicly announced the dissolution of the Danaher Death Squad as a unified training and competition team. Danaher cited a combination of factors in explaining the split: disputes over the physical location of a future school, personality conflicts, diverging values, and an unavoidable tension between the team's collective identity and the independently growing profiles of its individual members. The announcement marked the end of one of submission grappling's most dominant and influential training groups.

During the summer of 2021, Crelinsten, Craig Jones, and Nicky Rodriguez announced the formation of a new team. Named the B-Team, the group established its training base in Austin, Texas, bringing together high-profile alumni of the Danaher system who chose to build an independent competitive identity outside the original New York-based structure. The B-Team quickly became one of the sport's most visible teams, with its members continuing to compete at the highest levels of no-gi grappling. By early March 2026, B-Team teammate Nick Rodriguez had signed with UFC BJJ, a development that underscored the team's sustained presence at the forefront of the sport.

On March 8, 2026, Crelinsten headlined Polaris 36 in Croydon, England, submitting Shaï Gerena in the first round in a broadcast exclusive to FloGrappling. The victory reinforced his standing as an active Polaris titleholder — a status he referenced directly in his post-fight remarks, noting that he had held the belt for some time. The performance confirmed his continued ability to operate at the top of the Polaris competitive structure.

Immediately following the victory, Crelinsten issued an unambiguous public callout for UFC BJJ: "I had this (Polaris) belt for a while, and UFC BJJ, I want that f—ng belt! I want that Octobowl, I want to be in there. UFC BJJ hit me up, I'm coming for that belt!" The challenge carried additional significance given the well-documented rivalry between FloGrappling — the platform on which Polaris 36 aired — and the UFC. By issuing the callout from a FloGrappling broadcast, Crelinsten placed himself at the center of one of submission grappling's most commercially charged fault lines, positioning himself as a top-level contender prepared to compete within the UFC's emerging submission grappling format.