Superstar competitor Helena Crevar is known as much for her distinctive look as she is for her incredible jiu-jitsu skills. In this interview Helena talks about her competition mindset, how she manages her personal brand, what she learns from (very occasionally) losing, and her plans for the future.

Welcome back, friends. Polaris 34, aka the Squads Final, was non-stop action and you should definitely watch it if you haven’t seen it yet. As for your hosts, Hywel was uncharacteristically sat doing nothing except watching some great matches while Matt was running around and being stressed. In this episode we discuss the standout moments fro Polaris’s last ever event on UFC Fight Pass, and talk about the exciting opportunities now they’re moving to FloGrappling.

The recent Quintet 5 event in Dubai saw the long awaited return of Japan’s coolest and most iconic grappling show. There were some great matches, some weird cultural dynamics between the Arabic and Japanese organizers, but the overall atmosphere was an authentic Quintet show just like the old days. We also discuss the upcoming Polaris Squads event, which will see Team Europe go against Team Asia & Oceania.

Matt is back from the Scramble training camp in Spain so we talked about our training stories (good and bad), plus discuss the upcoming Quintet 5 grappling event in Dubai, which features some legends of the most epic era of Japanese MMA.

Mikey opens up about the criticism he faces from the jiu-jitsu world, discusses his desire to see new stars created in the sport, and even discusses the two hot topics of autism and steroids.

Steroids in BJJ, what you need to do to get sponsored, and whether the gi is dying... We opened up our inbox to questions from listeners and in episode 5 of Unknown Pressures we give our professional opinions on the state of BJJ in 2025.

The UFC recently created a brand new jiu-jitsu event called UFC BJJ. Dana White has promised millions of dollars of investment, and Hywel and Matt discuss the implications for the grappling community.

Matt talks about the evolution of Polaris over the past decade, and the many challenges faced in organizing an international grappling event, and how Polaris created a sustainable business model while other events came and went.

Matt and Hywel discuss the Trials and give their take on the Europeans who qualified, and share some of their stories from behind the scenes of man y of the ADCC World Championships they’ve been to.

Matt Benyon and Hywel Teague discuss the recent controversies around the Craig Jones Invitational 2 (CJI 2) event, as well as the problems with matches under the submission-only ruleset, the growth of UFC BJJ and more.