D-Von! Get The Tables!
Jiu Jitsu World League held its 2023 “Worlds” tournament last weekend at UCLA Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif., selling out the venue and packing the mats with a whopping 4706 competitors from all different ages and skill levels.
Though I’m sure event organizers were not prepared to be awarding any WWE medals.
The video above highlights one deranged competitor using a slam to escape a perilous position, which is not uncommon in both jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts (MMA). What is uncommon, is walking off the mats and slamming an opponent through the judges’ table.
An unverified Reddit commenter added some context:
So I used to train with this kid. He came to our spot for about four months as a fresh white belt maybe eight months ago or so. We noticed immediately that he was overly aggressive and hurt a few of his training partners so our professor politely told him that he would have to find a new spot to train. We still wanted to see him compete so we decided to film his match so we could have sent it to him later.
We also found out that he signed up to this event listing us as his affiliated school before this incident even happened even though he has literally zero affiliation with us. Our professor had already started the process of alerting JJWL that he was not part of our team when he decided to skadoosh this kid through a table :/
I know there is some footwork happening to make sure the orgs are aware he is not affiliated with our local schools and has not been for some time but as far as punishment from JJWL I am unsure what happened. They were pissed though…
One more thing to add. His opponent who got slammed was a fuckin G. He literally got amped after the slam and wanted the match to continue. Kid was game and not intimidated at all. Props to him for being a good sport about it.
Myself and a few of the other of the older cats tried to take him under our wings a bit and try to get to know him better and see if we could help him relax and get more mental control but he just never seemed interested.
Shame too because we really embraced him even through the aggression but at some point it becomes a lost cause and you have to worry about the teams safety on the mats. We did try though.
So much for the “gentle art.”
Reckless grapplers can easily cause devastating injuries, as was the case with since-terminated UFC welterweight Rousimar Palhares. “Toquinho” garnered a poor reputation for injuring … well, just about everyone, including training partners, ADCC grapplers, and UFC opponents.
No word yet on the identity of the slammer or his potential punishment.