A couple of week earlier than he acquired the information about his previous good friend, T.J. De Santis acquired a textual content asking him a query he’d requested himself many occasions over the previous few years: How was Jordan Breen doing today?
“All I might say was, ‘I don’t know and it breaks my coronary heart,’” De Santis stated.
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Mike Bohn hadn’t heard from Breen in near a 12 months. He’d tried many alternative methods to contact him. He’d even requested police in Breen’s hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to examine in on him.
“I simply wished to get some solutions,” Bohn stated. “I’m checking the obituaries and issues like that. Type of darkish ideas, however simply the truth of what was wanted.”
The police discovered him and made contact, they reported, however couldn’t supply greater than that. Breen didn’t wish to be discovered, they stated. Bohn heard from him as soon as extra after that, an e-mail a number of months later “form of poking enjoyable at me for calling the cops on him and asking if I might assist him out financially.”
The e-mail got here from an unfamiliar tackle and acquired filtered into the spam folder, so it was a couple of weeks earlier than Bohn discovered it. He responded instantly, however didn’t hear again. Then final week he acquired the replace he’d dreaded but in addition type of anticipated. Breen had been discovered lifeless on his birthday. He’d simply turned 38.
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His title will not be acquainted to newer battle followers, however you couldn’t be anyplace close to MMA within the early 2000s and never know of Jordan Breen. A author and radio host for Sherdog.com, one of many first and most influential on-line MMA media retailers, Breen was identified for his power and enthusiasm in addition to his encyclopedic information of the game. I used to be a visitor on his present a number of occasions through the years, and it at all times felt uniquely intimidating making an attempt to maintain up with him on-air.
As Uncrowned’s Chuck Mindenhall wrote of Breen after his loss of life: “He was a residing archive of the game, and he took all of it with him.”
Breen discovered his option to Sherdog as a 19-year-old wiz child who impressed the editors with the depth of his information. Former editor Greg Savage had by no means heard of him till fellow editor Josh Gross insisted they rent him, he stated. Gross had discovered a few of Breen’s writing on-line and was adamant that the location might use his expertise and enthusiasm.
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“Josh had learn his stuff about essentially the most area of interest matters in Japanese MMA,” Savage stated. “He was writing on, I do not know if you happen to name it a weblog at that time, however he had slightly string of articles about Japanese MMA, speaking about Shooto B-leagues and stuff like that. Stuff that nobody over right here gave a rattling about. I imply, there have been those who cared clearly, so he generated a following on his personal, however it was essentially the most obscure stuff that perhaps they didn’t even care about in Japan. However Jordan would dig in and that was simply his nature. And never simply in MMA. He was like that with every thing.”
Breen couldn’t stand when others knew extra a couple of matter — any matter — than he did, Savage stated. He recalled as soon as mentioning to Breen in an offhand, passing comment one thing a couple of tv present about World Warfare II fighter pilots that he used to observe as a child.
“He went and watched all 50-something episodes of it earlier than the following time I talked to him,” Savage stated. “He knew all these things about it and had a lot to say about it and I used to be similar to, ‘Dude I don’t even bear in mind 90% of this.’ He had to do this on each topic. It was hilarious.”
De Santis labored with Breen on Sherdog Radio and sometimes described him as his “podcasting soulmate.” Their pre- and post-show conversations may very well be in depth but in addition exhausting, De Santis stated, as a result of Breen appeared unable to close his mind off or comprise his pleasure about any matter.
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“I bear in mind calling fights with him at Tachi Palace (On line casino) and it was the night time earlier than and we have been going over our notes,” De Santis stated. “It’s late, like one o’clock within the morning, and he will get off on a tangent speaking about [former UFC flyweight Ian McCall] after which the following factor I do know he’s telling me about Mike Ehrmantraut from ‘Breaking Dangerous’ and why he’s the best-written character on TV and I’m like, ‘Jordan, I can’t get into this proper now, I want to fall asleep.’”
That method fueled his Sherdog Radio reveals, the place Breen might go for hours with an virtually frantic fervor and by some means by no means run out of issues to speak about. In these early days of MMA’s fast progress section, his ardour helped gas a fan base that couldn’t get protection of the game from any mainstream sports activities retailers, which universally regarded MMA and the UFC as the intense and barely embarrassing fringe of the professional sports activities world.
It was essentially the most obscure stuff that perhaps they didn’t even care about in Japan. However Jordan would dig in and that was simply his nature. And never simply in MMA — he was like that with every thing.
Effectively earlier than he grew to become a colleague after which a good friend of Breen’s, MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn listened to his limitless rants whereas engaged on a street crew in British Columbia.
“Even earlier than I acquired into MMA journalism, one in every of my final jobs, I used to be doing flagging and development for this bridge mission in Vancouver,” Bohn stated. “And I needed to principally sit in a truck for eight hours and get out as soon as each hour to carry the cease signal for the no site visitors that was coming at three within the morning, so a concrete truck might cross or one thing. I had a lot time sitting in these, so I simply listened to these reveals to eat on a regular basis. I assumed he was so insightful. The identical factor all of us thought after we listened to him.”
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Because of the virtually fully on-line nature of MMA media work on the time, a lot of those that labored with or round Breen hardly ever noticed him in particular person. When he confirmed as much as work occasions, his look was generally a shock to folks. Typically his darkish hair could be gelled into extreme spikes, like an ‘80s rocker. Or he may present up in daring outfits that pressured folks to take discover of him.
“I bear in mind going to a press convention with him the place he was carrying canary yellow capris with a sports activities blazer,” De Santis stated. “And I used to be like, I do not know a lot about vogue, however I do not assume that is proper. However he made it work.”
Savage met him for the primary time when selecting him up from the airport forward of an occasion in Newark, New Jersey. Breen had labored for him for years by this level, however it was the primary time they’d ever come nose to nose.
“I already form of had an concept that he was slightly on the market, slightly totally different, and after I picked him up on the airport I used to be instantly like, ‘Holy s***, this man is a maniac.’ I knew it instantly. I spent 5 days working with him, I wish to say it was the [Georges] St-Pierre and [Dan] Hardy battle. I launched him to a bunch of individuals and he was so charismatic. He would draw everybody to him, and lots of people have been greatly surprised by him however additionally they liked him. He dressed like a psycho. He’d go from the loss of life steel look to then trying like he ought to have been on a seaside within the Hamptons. It was nuts.”
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In subsequent years, when the 2 of them shared residing quarters throughout work journeys, Savage acquired a glimpse of Breen’s method to partying in his off hours.
“Simply seeing this man from morning to nighttime, he most likely slept three hours a day, if that,” Savage stated. “He was continually scrolling by the web and dealing. There was by no means a uninteresting second. He was at all times doing one thing after which the second you have been carried out with work, it was like straight out, let’s go, we’re going to go hit it onerous. That was his nature. There was by no means an off change.”
Breen might go for hours with an virtually frantic fervor and by some means by no means run out of issues to speak about. In these early days of MMA’s fast progress section, his ardour helped gas a fan base that couldn’t get protection of the game from any mainstream sports activities retailers.
By this level, Sherdog had been bought by Crave On-line, which operated a conglomeration of sports activities and way of life websites. Throughout one of many many durations of sudden contraction within the on-line media business, Savage was let go in August 2016 and later took a job with the PFL (previously World Collection of Preventing). Breen was saved on at Sherdog, however just for a short while.
After he too was laid off, based on Savage, Breen’s struggles with medicine and alcohol appeared to accentuate.
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“He known as me in about 2018, on the lookout for a job, however there was nothing we actually had for Jordan,” Savage stated. “I knew he was effectively into his habit by that time, and it’s onerous to actually battle to deliver somebody in after they’re like that. It’s one thing I believe again on and remorse now, like perhaps there was a method I might have carried out extra for him, however it was powerful at that time.”
Within the week or so since Breen’s loss of life, that is one constant sentiment among the many fellow media members I’ve spoken to. All of us knew Breen was struggling. We knew that the shortage of regular employment had contributed to an unraveling in his private life, and that the unraveling made him extra unpredictable and fewer dependable as a potential worker. Nonetheless, all of us surprise if we couldn’t have carried out one thing.
“I’ve felt a variety of remorse,” De Santis stated. “Might I’ve helped him? Might I’ve carried out extra? That is what’s onerous, as a result of Jordan was my good friend greater than something. He was my good friend. And I really feel like slightly little bit of a failure there, however on the identical time, the child was a rustic away. … He was his personal largest enemy. We did a variety of stuff towards the tip the place, half the time it might be Jordan Breen and the opposite half he both simply would not present up or he would present up in a compromised state. I suppose that is the battle with habit, you understand what I imply? Simply cannot get out of your personal method generally.”
Bohn most likely did extra to assist him than another media good friend, from loaning him cash to letting Breen sleep on his sofa. However even that friendship grew to become strained by a few of Breen’s private struggles. He’d invite Bohn to hang around at a bar the place Breen’s girlfriend on the time labored, however between their frequent arguments and Breen’s reliance on the alcohol she saved serving him, the connection appeared more and more poisonous and actively dangerous.
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“There’d be occasions the place I might see he was hurting and I would invite him to hang around and he’d present up at my home and I might inform he hadn’t slept in days and was coming off the again of no matter he was doing,” Bohn stated. “He would come and we might play some WWE 2K or UFC, after which he would go out on the coach for 15 hours and I might inform that was one place he perhaps had some peace and will really get some relaxation. However what do you do past that? Do you invite the man to reside with you? Do you do that? There’s a variety of issues you would attempt to do, however it simply appeared like he was form of his personal worst enemy in that regard.”
Savage nonetheless wonders to what extent Breen’s many items have been additionally a part of his undoing. The frenetic depth of the way in which he thought and spoke and wrote appeared like an expression of the identical issues that made him particularly prone to addition.
“He was completely sensible,” Savage stated. “Do you get that with out the recklessness that comes together with it? I don’t know.”
De Santis expressed his sorrow that so a lot of MMA’s present followers by no means had an opportunity to get to know Breen, and even be taught the extent to which he helped form protection of the game.
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Sherdog’s “Combat Finder” instrument was an instrumental constructing block of MMA record-keeping, and Breen was an important pressure behind its exhaustive upkeep and construction, De Santis stated. The necessities of such an in depth database of fights and fighters have been well-suited to Breen’s obsessive thoughts. Those that can depend on correct and simply accessible fighter data now most likely do not know the debt they owe to folks like Breen, he stated.
“He was meticulous about issues that individuals would by no means even know,” De Santis stated. “It is so bizarre as a result of at present I do not even know what a hardcore fan is. A hardcore may say, ‘I have been watching since 2011. I have been watching since 2020. I have been watching since 1997.’ Jordan, that is the factor, I can not even pinpoint when his fandom began. I actually cannot. He simply appeared to indicate up realizing every thing about every thing.”
As longtime MMA journalist Luke Thomas put it on his Substack: “To the perfect of my information, the diploma to which Breen was revered, admired and considered as instrumental within the improvement of MMA fandom for a whole technology of followers isn’t one thing Breen himself was conscious.”
Those that knew him and discovered from him, nonetheless, have little doubt. They misplaced not solely a good friend, but in addition a strolling piece of this sport’s reminiscence.
“He wished to assist media members like myself earlier than I had any traction,” Bohn stated. “I am positive lots of people, you see them form of responding, saying the identical factor. The way in which he cared not solely concerning the sport itself, however serving to enhance all of the individuals who wished to be concerned in it to make all of it develop upwards — I believe that is one thing that we should always all form of soak up, and say it is a collective effort in that regard. Tearing one another down is not as useful towards that aim as constructing one another up. And I believe he actually did his greatest to do this.”
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