Oliver Taza has been at the center of the recent controversy between Marcelo Garcia and Renzo Gracie teams. While the two GOATs have much respect for each other and have burried the hatchet, their disciples begrudgingly benched their largely cyber war.
So who is Oliver Taza, the ADCC North American Trials finalist?
Taza is reportedly a 23 year old brown belt training both out of Montreal’s Tristar as well as Renzo Gracie academy New York.
The Danaher link is strong given that the tristar head coach is none other than John Danaher black belt Firas Zahabi.
When asked why is the Danaher Death Squad so succesfull young Taza told jiujitsutimes:
The reason why Eddie, Garry, and Gordon (DDS) do so well in the submission-only scene is first of all they train more than anybody else on this planet and that’s something people need to know. I used to think that training once, twice a day was going to cut it, not until I met them.
Second reason is the mentality that our sensei encourages us to have. Always attack, even while being on the defense. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a boring match from these guys, always non-stop attacks, chaining upper body with lower body attacks. It’s overwhelming but most importantly, entertaining for people who watch.
While this training schedule is grueling Taza tries to pace himself and avoids hitting up all 3 major DDS player – Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon and Eddie Wolverine Cummings in the same session
I try not to train with all three of them the same session because it’s too discouraging. I limit myself to two of the three unless I get called by all three. Classes in the city are usually an hour long, half technique and half training in the blue claustrophobic humid basement run by John Danaher.
One session at 7:30 AM, another one at noon, and at night we usually head back to Jersey and work on more specific stuff at Brunswick Jiu Jitsu. Nighttime can sometimes mean 3 other sessions which means that we’re done training around 11:30 PM.
One of the most interesting things about Taza is that he’s just 2.5 years into training! For the remarkable growth he credits the outstanding instruction he had the luck to receive since day one!
