Will Tennyson

In October 2026, Will Tennyson attended his first formally documented Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class at Craig Jones' Zamaya resort in Mexico. The session was conducted alongside Adam Bradley, a BJJ black belt who documented the experience on Instagram and characterized it as Tennyson's introduction to structured BJJ instruction. Training at a resort tied to one of the sport's prominent competitive figures gave Tennyson direct exposure to a high-level grappling environment from the outset.

Bradley's framing of the session as Tennyson's "first BJJ class" drew measured skepticism from longtime followers, given Tennyson's prior combat-sports-adjacent content. The characterization raises a familiar definitional question in grappling circles: where does informal or cross-disciplinary exposure end and a first formal class begin? The claim remains attributed to Bradley's account rather than independently verified. Regardless, the Zamaya session stands as Tennyson's most directly documented engagement with structured BJJ instruction.

Approximately two years before the Zamaya session, circa 2024, Tennyson visited Francis Ngannou's training camp for a physical challenge segment on his YouTube channel. There, Ngannou's head coach Eric Nicksick introduced Tennyson to foundational grappling concepts drawn from an MMA framework rather than a pure BJJ context.

Takedown Mechanics and Defensive Fundamentals

Nicksick's instruction centered on a cage-oriented double-leg takedown sequence. As Nicksick laid out the setup: "Let's say that we worked our opponent over to the barrier — right up to the cage. We're going to drop this hand and put our head to the outside, then bring our hips and drive inside to that double leg." The coaching covered both offensive and defensive dimensions — framing techniques, distance management, turning the feet, maintaining a frame, and shifting weight away when an opponent shoots. Each concept was rooted in the spatial logic of MMA competition, where the cage wall reshapes the geometry of a takedown attempt.

When Tennyson asked how he might defend against Ngannou specifically, Nicksick's answer was sharp and unambiguous: "Don't be there" — a candid acknowledgment of the gap between a beginner and an elite-level grappling threat. Beyond the grappling work, the camp visit included pad sessions with striking coach Dewey Cooper and strength and conditioning circuits, reflecting the integrated nature of an MMA training environment rather than a dedicated jiu-jitsu setting.

Will Tennyson is a Canadian fitness content creator whose channel is built around immersive physical challenges across a wide range of athletic disciplines and elite training environments. His engagement with grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fits squarely within that framework — driven by content and curiosity rather than a dedicated martial arts pursuit. As of October 2026, Tennyson holds no formal BJJ belt rank beyond beginner status, carries no competition history, and maintains no affiliation with a BJJ team.

His connections to prominent combat sports figures — including Craig Jones, Francis Ngannou, Eric Nicksick, and Adam Bradley — have emerged through content creation access rather than through competitive or long-term training relationships. That context informed the follower skepticism surrounding Bradley's characterization of the Zamaya session: years of combat-sports-adjacent content made prior grappling exposure plausible, complicating the clean narrative of a first formal class.