Eating crow with Luca Atalla

Edited to add: for perspective, a timeline of events that may help you interpret Ryan and Luca's exchange below.

 January 9th, 2013: Two male TLI competition team members (Nick Schultz and Mateo Maldonado) are arrested and charged with raping a fellow female student on January 1, 2013..

 January 10th: Details of Lloyd Irvin's involvement in a 1989 rape come to light. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/1/10/3856994/team-lloyd-irvin-rape-case

 January 18th: Ryan Hall issues an open letter online. It is a call to martial arts practitioners and instructors to strive for integrity above a win-at-all-costs mentality, and also serves as a barely veiled critique of the culture fostered at TLI which he was once a part of.
http://livingthemartialarts.com

 January 22: Lloyd Irvin issues an open letter, published on GracieMag.com http://www.graciemag.com/2013/01/official-lloyd-irvin-statement/ .

The letter addresses the recent rape charges against his two students, and acknowledges his involvement in the 1989 rape case (he received a "not guilty" verdict, but appeared to have played an active role in a gang rape in which several others were convicted). GracieMag includes a footnote to Irvin's letter in which GracieMag C.E.O. Luca Atalla provides a link to his own public statement regarding the recent news, titled "How the Reputation Murder Works." It essentially serves as a defense of Lloyd Irvin and a dismissal of Lloyd Irvin critics. There are contentious exchanges between Atalla and readers in the comment section, including a back and forth between Atalla and Kathleen Callos ( the mother of TLI student/competitor Keenan Cornelius).
 http://lucaatalla.com/2013/01/how-the-reputation-murder-works

 January 24: I respond to Luca:
http://georgetteoden.blogspot.com/2013/01/luca-atalla-speaks-for-graciemag-about.html

 circa February 19th (dates vary): A few TLI affiliates announce that they are breaking ties with Lloyd Irvin including BETA Academy. 
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/2/19/4007012/beta-academy-owner-explains-ending-relationship-with-lloyd-irvin

 February 22-- I post an rebuttal to the rumor that Lloyd Irvin's codefendant in the 1989 gang rape was acquitted:
 http://georgetteoden.blogspot.com/2013/02/lloyd-irvins-codefendant-was-not.html

February 27: News surfaces that several prominent members of TLI are leaving the school, including Cornelius 
http://www.graciemag.com/2013/02/keenan-i-can-no-longer-be-absolutely-sure-that-this-is-the-right-environment-for-me/

 March 1: TLI team member Jordan Schultz posts a message on Facebook providing background into why he and several members are leaving the school, which includes an accusation that Lloyd Irvin manipulated the trust of at least one female student in order to coerce sexual favors from her. http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/showthread.php?p=80259355

 * * * *

 Here is the private exchange between Ryan Hall and Luca Atalla, shared with me by Ryan and published here with his consent:

 * * * *

3:50pm  Ryan Hall

 Hello Luca, How are you? I am wondering if you would be willing to post a letter that I wrote on GracieMag? I have a lot of experience with what has been going on in the BJJ community lately and I hope that my letter can share a viewpoint that most people may not have seen yet. I can send the letter to you for your review today if that's ok.
Thanks and talk to you soon,
Ryan

 2:17am Ryan Hall 

Luca, Just checking back to make sure my message didn't get lost in your inbox.
Ryan

 10:11pm Ryan Hall

 Hey Luca, How's things? Think you could post this story to GracieMag? It's fairly credible, I think. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/2/19/4007012/beta-academy-owner-explains-ending-relationship-with-lloyd-irvin
Take care,
Ryan
 BETA Academy owner explains ending relationship with Lloyd Irvin
www.bloodyelbow.com Following terminating his relationship with Lloyd Irvin, BETA Academy owner Nakapan Phungephorn explains the situation, including claims of shady business tactics and bully behavior. 

1:15am Ryan Hall

 Hey, Luca.
How's things, irmao? Remember that time you were defending Lloyd and yelling about "the reputation murder" or whatever crap you invented to try to obscure what was right in front of you? Yeah...might want to get on damage control, boss. Just a friendly heads up.
Ryan

 1:39am Luca Atalla

 I stick with my words. I'm not here nor my vehicle to attack others.
Good luck.

 1:54am Ryan Hall
 A bold position given recent events. Kudos for your bravery, sir. http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f12/keenan-leaves-tli-2400515/index39.html
Scroll down to the end for a heaping serving of crow.
Keenan leaves TLI - Page 39 - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums forums.sherdog.com Page 39- Keenan leaves TLI Grappling Technique

 10:06am Luca Atalla

 If it's true (which sincerely appears), the police will seize this case, and it's going to be very soon. I had no way to know it, and I wrote based in the information I had at the moment I wrote. Ryan, I don't really feel like I need to do damage control. I would defend anyone if I thought people were attacking him without proofs, or for other reasons. I would do for you, or for anyone else. That said, my belief is still the same. This thing if proven will take Jiu-Jitsu sadly down. And Jiu-Jitsu doesn't have anything with people's behavior. Again, I am writing here but I'm not sure it's all true, and I will wait to things wrap-up. I'm not a legal specialist but it seems pretty clear that if the guy is guilt, the legal system will act very fast and the good will prevail. Thanks for advising me.

 10:12am Luca Atalla

 for other reasons = for different reasons than the facts that happened. Bottom line, based in the information I knew, there was not a rapist culture in his environment. Things change, but I don't have a crystal ball. It's my posture. I can't open a powerful media channel for attacks based in conjectures. The difference of GracieMag attacking people and you or other guys attacking people is big, and you have powerful social tools to do it nowadays, as it's proven. Sincerely, I expect the evil to lose, even if it is naive. And, in the end of the day, it seems that that's what is going to happen. Good luck!

 2:24pm Ryan Hall

 Luca,

GracieMag is a "powerful media channel"? Ha. You are a for profit faux-journal that pushes the interests of its members and ignores anything and anyone that does not parrot your party line. There's nothing legitimate about your media. Please continue to tell yourself whatever you need to in order to sleep at night. I find it amusing/appalling that you can't even back off your nonsense or stop patting yourself on the back for the ten seconds it would take to apologize to the people you've deeply wronged with your support of possibly the worst person that the martial arts has seen in the past decade.

You should be ashamed of yourself. It's funny that you mention a lack of information being the source of your error. I can't help but notice that there was a pretty impressive lack of information supporting Lloyd Irvin, yet you (the same guy who was speaking at his event) felt comfortable attacking the people who stood up for what is right and even went as far as to suggest that their motives were some sort of vendetta. You wrote based on your own self-interest because you are a coward and an opportunist.

 Finally, your asinine suggestion that you don't want this to reflect negatively on Jiu-Jitsu is also pathetic and an obvious red herring. Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art and martial arts are composed of people. People are what was at risk, what was being abused here, you moron. In closing, it isn't "what it is," as you suggest in your weak, spineless Facebook wall post. It's what Lloyd and people like you have made it. You are right about one thing, though: this is sad. I hope that you will actually reflect on this situation and come out of the whole thing with a little more respect for others. I'll consider letting you off the hook when you make a public apology.

Ryan 
PS One more for the road:
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfmgo=forum.posts&forum=11&thread=2140273&page=1
 My Experience W Lloyd as Mastermind Member - Mixed Martial Arts Forum
www.mixedmartialarts.com

 2:46pm Luca Atalla 

Ryan, look, you can think whatever you want about myself or GracieMag. I train Jiu-Jitsu before you probably were born, you don't arrive here YESTERDAY to tell me what to do.

If my not be a powerful media channel for you but you're a ZERO for me, as an athlete, as person, and even as a blackbelt. 

I never trained under Lloyd (LIKE YOU), and even Lloyd wasn't even thinking on train Jiu-Jitsu when I started GracieMag back in 1994. I stick with my points. I am not interested in your personal agenda or personal vendetta.

 2:46pm Luca Atalla

 If my = GracieMag might.

 3:10pm Luca Atalla

 The summary is, you don't recognize GracieMag, for you I'm coward and opportunist and a moron. And from my side I don't know you, don't recognize you, don't know your agenda. Why bother to chat here? Keep your work and I will keep mine.

 3:26pm Ryan Hall

 Luca,

Does this mean we're not friends? If I thought you weren't my friend, I don't think I could bear it...
 At least we'll see each other in Vegas?
http://therealplayerlifestyle.com/
RE: Your Personal Invitation To My “Players ONLY Party” With The ONE unhinged genius normally holed up in his compound who you can’t afford to miss…

 3:32pm Luca Atalla

 Yes, I'll see you there.

 3:32pm Ryan Hall

 Yay!