The Jiu Jitsu World League held its 2023 “Worlds” tournament this past weekend at the UCLA Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, selling out the venue and packing the mats with a whopping 4,706 competitors of all ages and skill levels.
Although I’m sure the event organizers weren’t willing to award any WWE medals.
The video above highlights a disfigured competitor using a slam to escape a perilous situation, which is common in both jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts (MMA). The uncommon thing is to walk off the mat and hit the opponent through the referees table.
An unverified Reddit commenter added some context:
So I’ve been training with this kid. He came to our place for about four months as a new white belt maybe eight months or so ago. We noticed immediately that he was being overly aggressive and had injured a few of his training partners, so our teacher politely told him he would have to find a new place to train. We still wanted to see him compete so we decided to film his match so we can send it to him later.
We also found out that he signed up for this event listing us as his school prior to this incident even though he is literally not affiliated with us. Our teacher had already started the process of alerting JJWL that he wasn’t part of our team when he decided to skip this kid through a table :/
I know there is some work going on to make sure institutions are aware that he is not affiliated with our local schools and hasn’t been for some time but as far as punishment from JJWL I’m not sure what happened. They were angry though…
One more thing to add. His much-maligned opponent was the dreaded G.I. He literally got hit after the slam and wanted the match to continue. The child was a toy and was not afraid at all. Props to him for being a good sport about it.
Me and a few of the older cats tried taking him under our wings for a bit and trying to get to know him better and see if we could help him relax and get more mental control but he never seemed interested.
Shame also because we really embrace it even through aggression but at some point it becomes a losing cause and you have to worry about the safety of the teams on the mats. We tried though.
So much for the “nice art”.
Reckless wrestlers can easily inflict devastating injuries, as was the case with the since-ending UFC welterweight Rousimar Palhares. “Toquinho” has gotten notoriety for injuring…well, just about everyone, including training partners, ADCC players, and UFC opponents.
No word yet on the critic’s identity or possible punishment.