Jonathan Fennell is commonly referred to as “Sunshine” at Legion due to his bright red hair and sunny disposition. Currently, he holds the rank of black belt belt. He began his jiu-jitsu journey by studying traditional Japanese jiu-jitsu (all that was available in the area at the time) in 2012 in a small town in South Carolina. He started training modern jiu jitsu at 15 years old as a sophomore in high school.
Being young, he tried to leverage the power of YouTube jiu jitsu to learn more. Today that is a very unwise move, but back then platforms with professional instruction like Keenan Online didn’t exist yet. He quickly found videos of a young American phenom tearing through opponents with his own style of jiu jitsu. He immediately began studying Keenan’s style and eventually saved up enough money to move to San Diego.
Sunshine’s teaching experience goes back to South Carolina where he helped start a jiu jitsu club where he taught kids and adults for two years. He’s also been active as a competitor, medaling at many local and regional competitions.
Since the move, he’s spent most of his time dedicated to learning not only Keenan’s style of jiu-jitsu but also his style of teaching to aide Keenan in providing the highest quality service available at Legion. Jon is an assistant instructor and is teaching the 6 A.M. morning class.
