SPOKANE, WA — Following what sources close to the situation describe as “the most one-sided conversation in the history of MMA gyms,” Iron Triangle Jiu-Jitsu owner Marcus Trent, 44, issued a formal clarification Tuesday confirming that the surgical reconstruction of both of member Derek Halvorsen’s anterior cruciate ligaments simultaneously does not, under any reading of the gym’s membership agreement, constitute a valid basis for pausing monthly dues.
“The mat is always there for you,” said Trent, who holds a black belt he awarded himself through what he calls a “self-certification process” recognized by the North American Grappling Standards Council, a body he also founded and currently serves as president, vice president, and treasurer. “Derek’s commitment to Iron Triangle shouldn’t have an off-season just because his legs are temporarily non-weight-bearing.”
Halvorsen, 31, a high school geography teacher, underwent the bilateral procedure on April 29th after a freak injury during an intermediate rolling session that his surgeon, Dr. Pamela Cho of Spokane Regional Medical Center, described in her post-op notes as “the most catastrophic simultaneous bilateral knee event I have witnessed in eleven years of orthopedic medicine.”
Both ACLs. At the same time. The left one went first, Dr. Cho told colleagues, and the right one, apparently sensing an opportunity, followed within the same thirty-second window.
“He’s going to be completely non-weight-bearing for eight weeks minimum,” Dr. Cho said. “Followed by approximately twelve months of structured rehabilitation. He will not be doing anything resembling jiu-jitsu for at least fourteen months. Possibly longer.”
Trent, reached by phone at the gym’s front desk — which is also his kitchen, due to what he describes as a “temporary structural integration” with his living quarters — confirmed he’d received the medical documentation.
“I appreciate the paperwork,” he said. “That’s very thorough. But when Derek signed the Iron Triangle Membership Agreement — which is a legally binding contract, I had a guy look at it — he agreed to the terms. The terms do not include an injury clause. They include a move-out-of-state clause, a death clause — and that one’s got a sixty-day notice requirement, which I think is very reasonable — and a clause about leaving for another gym, which voids the contract and also your belt rank.”
He paused.
“Derek’s knees are not in any of those clauses.”
Iron Triangle’s membership agreement, a two-page document printed in eleven-point Times New Roman with the word “BINDING” stamped across the top in red ink, was obtained by this publication. The document does not contain the word “injury.” It does not contain the word “medical.” It does contain, on page two, the phrase “the human body is a temple that shows up,” which Trent says he wrote himself and considers his philosophical cornerstone.
Halvorsen, currently recovering at home with both legs elevated on separate pillows at the recommendation of Dr. Cho’s office, described his conversation with Trent as “clarifying in a way that made me feel like I was having a stroke.”
“He offered me two options,” Halvorsen said. “The first option was that I continue paying at the regular rate — $175 a month — and quote, ‘accumulate spiritual mat time.’ I asked him what that meant. He said I could visualize training. He said he read that visualization has the same neurological benefits as physical practice, and that some of the best grapplers in the world use visualization more than they use the mat.”
Halvorsen gestured at his two immobilized legs.
“He said Devin Sorrells does forty minutes of visualization every morning. I told him I don’t know who that is. He said that’s because I don’t take my mental game seriously enough.”
The second option was a modified tier Trent is calling the “Upper Body Integration Plan,” available for $145 a month. It includes access to the gym during off-peak hours, unlimited grip training on the gym’s lone kettlebell, and what Trent described as “mat sitting” — attending classes without actually doing anything, just sitting on the mat while, in Trent’s words, “the technique lands in the subconscious.”
“He said I could come in and sit on the mat and watch class,” Halvorsen said. “He said watching technique is 60 percent as effective as doing technique. I asked him where he got that number. He said he didn’t remember but it sounded right.”
Iron Triangle BJJ has fourteen active members, down from twenty-two after what Trent describes as “a philosophical parting of ways” in February, the details of which he declined to discuss except to note that “some people aren’t ready for the level of commitment this gym requires.”
“I feel for Derek,” said Colton Yates, 27, a white belt at his eleventh month at Iron Triangle who describes himself as “a few months away” from his blue belt, though Trent has not offered promotions “until the energy of the room is right.” “But Marcus did roll through a torn labrum in 2021 and he didn’t miss a month. He showed us the MRI on the gym TV. He played it twice.”
The labrum story gets told at the start of Wednesday night class at least once a month. In Trent’s telling, he sustained the injury during a tournament, was told by a physician that he “probably shouldn’t be grappling,” and responded by grappling the following morning.
“My shoulder hurt so bad I could only use one arm,” Trent has said, by multiple accounts. “So I worked my triangles. I worked my armbars. I adapted. The mat doesn’t care if you’re hurt. The mat is just the mat.”
Halvorsen, when told this story a second time in the same week, noted that a torn labrum and bilateral ACL reconstruction are not the same thing.
“One of them,” he said, “lets you stand up.”
As of press time, Trent had proposed a third option: that Halvorsen attend class in his wheelchair and participate in what Trent is calling a “ground-start curriculum,” in which all techniques would begin from a seated or supine position, so he wouldn’t need to stand at any point.
“It’s actually better for Derek’s game in the long run,” Trent said. “His takedowns were always a weakness. Now he has no choice but to develop his guard. This is a gift. I’ve been telling him for eight months he needs to work his guard. The universe provided.”
Halvorsen’s wife, Jennifer, 33, a dental hygienist who had until recently described her husband’s jiu-jitsu hobby as “a reasonable expense,” said she plans to dispute the April charge with their credit card company.
Trent confirmed he is aware of this.
“That’s going to be a problem,” he said. “That’s a move against the gym. We’re going to have to have a conversation about what that does to Derek’s standing in the community and also whether it triggers the contract’s adversarial-action clause.”
Asked whether the membership agreement contains an adversarial-action clause, Trent said he was “pretty sure” it did, and that if it didn’t, it should.
Iron Triangle Jiu-Jitsu’s next promotion ceremony is scheduled for “when Marcus feels it,” according to the gym’s private Instagram account, which has 47 followers and describes the facility as “a sacred space of transformation, elite grappling, and also we have a cage.” The cage, sources confirm, is not regulation size. Trent maintains it is regulation size and that regulation has “a lot of wiggle room people don’t talk about.”
Halvorsen’s projected return-to-training date is July 2027.
His membership auto-renews on the 15th.