Nick The Tooth Gullo was originally part of the latest Dana White series called “Looking For a Fight”. He was there along with Mat Serra and Dana White but following a grappling session in episode 2 he was kicked off the show.

In case you’re not familiar with The Tooth, he is a long time friend of Dana White’s and he’s gotten some exposure couple years back due to a Joe Lauzon grappling video. The video in question has since been made private. Nick also has another interesting credit – he entered the blue belt World NoGI Championship (for Seniors 41-45 years of age) when he was a white belt – and won it!

It’s interesting to note that the pilot episode of Looking For A Fight is actually a Sage Northcutt origin story – that’s where he was discovered.

You can watch the grappling session in question below:

Dana White narrates the roll footage comparing Nick to grappling with your 3 year old Daughter. Yikes…

Naturally Nick The Tooth Gullo who was rolling in the AoJ gear didn’t take too kindly the words exchanged. Here’s what he told Bruce Buffer on his podcast called It’s time:

 “When we filmed that right there, when he and I were gonna roll, I was told that we were just gonna go in there and he was gonna give a seminar, and then we were just gonna do some flow rolling or whatever it is. And if you go back, and you watch the video, the first thing I said (and they actually kept it in there) was me going ‘dude, I’m not even warmed up yet.”

Nick was also quite discontent because he was in dark about the specifics of the challenge.

 “But the real reason I was upset was because one, I wasn’t told what was gonna happen and everybody else knew it was gonna happen. And I’m not cool with that, and I wasn’t cool with that. And number two, I was wearing the rash guard, and that was the first thing I said to Matt, from my school, the Art of Jiu-Jitsu.”

“Now, you have to understand that in Jiu-Jitsu culture and also in MMA culture, camps and teams are a big fucking deal. I didn’t start it, I didn’t make it up, and my biggest concern was that people were gonna see me in an Art of Jiu-Jitsu rash guard, and they were gonna take that video, and they were gonna cut it up, and it was gonna go around the web with clickbaits saying ‘Look! Serra Jiu-Jitsu is better than the Mendes Jiu-Jitsu.’ And guess what, it happened. You can go online and search it.”

Matt Serra spoke at length about the same incident last week saying:

 So, when I saw the pilot, I see a thing where Tooth is saying, ‘You know Matt, he’s short, he’s bald, he makes me look good in every way and he’s never on time. All we have to do is settle the grappling.’

When we’re on the plane, I bring it up to him. I told him, ‘I’m confused. What do you mean that we have to settle the grappling? What do we have to settle?’

I’m a black belt and have been since 2000. I’m the first American black belt under Renzo Gracie…I’m not gonna start bragging about my credentials, but I love jiu-jitsu and I’ve been on the mat awhile, and I’m a jedi and whatnot. He’s a blue belt that won the old man Worlds, the 40-and-over Worlds, the Mundials.

So, he won that thing at blue belt, so I don’t know if the guy thinks I’m walking around a little chubby, that I’m on the couch, that I’m not rolling, maybe I like some pasta, so if I roll, he can get me at a moment of weakness. Where I come from, that’s a callout. I’m old school. You don’t say, ‘Hey man, let’s settle the grappling.’

You’re putting me on blast, what do you expect? So, we start breaking each other’s chops about that. I was like, ‘Dude, I fought the best on the planet,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah? Now you got the Tooth.’

So we end up grappling. We went to a jiu-jitsu school, and we had a little match. What happened was what I expected to happen. Of course I’m gonna tap the guy like a typewriter. Who expected anything different? Not me.
We rolled, and then afterwards—and I didn’t think nothing of it—I go home afterwards, and I get a long-winded text saying, ‘I just want you to know it was a pleasure and this and that, it was an honor…but, I have to let you know, I cannot let that air.’

So, I’m reading this [laughs], and I’m thinking, ‘Who are you, the producer? Who the f*ck are you?’

He continues, ‘I cannot let that air with the rolling, because it will bring shame to Mendes Brothers, my professors.’

He’s some f*cking samurai. He should throw himself on the f*cking sword, if he’s so upset. I didn’t see any of this coming, so I give him a call, and I go, ‘My man, what do you mean, you can’t let that be shown? You wanted that. What were you thinking?’

He goes, ‘I wasn’t warmed up, I thought we would flow roll.’ I go, ‘What would flow roll do? What would that settle?’

He says, ‘Oh, I felt like I was set up,’ and I’m like, ‘Hold on, just hold on a second. This was all your idea. Why would you bring that up?’

He says, ‘I thought it would be a good bit for the show.’ I go, ‘Well you got your bit, but you didn’t like the outcome, so what? Now you don’t want it to be shown? It’s bullshit. If anybody had something to lose, it’s me. You pull the Berimbolo, you take my bac…how does that look? I’m getting attacked by the Tooth? I’d wanna kill myself.’[Laughs]

So, I’m like, ‘Listen dude, let’s set this thing up. I played ball because I’m a good sport.’

So, we got into an argument, then we settled down a little bit, and I remember him coming to me saying [affected voice], ‘How would you like that if my professor did that to one of your purple belts?’

I go, ‘If one of my purple belts put your professors on blast, I would beat their ass worse than your professors did, because I make sure I teach my guys etiquette.’

But it doesn’t end there – Dana White was prompted by Serra as to this exchange:

So then I’m like, ‘Lemme see what Dana thinks about this.’ I copied it—and I’m out to eat with my family right after we went to my kid’s little gymnastics thing—so, I copied and pasted the text and sent it to Dana, and not even a minute goes by, and Dana called me, ‘Was that the f*cking Tooth? The Tooth wrote that? Oh, he’s dead, he’s f*cking murdered. Who does this guy think he is?’

Dana’s too normal to have this guy hold his clout. He thinks it’s not gonna be aired? So, I go, ‘Dana, it’s gonna be aired, right?’ He goes, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be aired, and wait till you hear the commentary!’

And indeed the commentary is pretty scathing. What do you think does this grappling exchange really bring any shame to the AoJ name or was this just an overreaction from all involved?