The IBJJF World Championship is arguably the most prestigious tournament at any belt level in the world. If you have a medal from this tournament, you are the real deal and have a sort of golden ticket in the jiu-jitsu world. For this reason, people value the opportunity to make their way to that pyramid and fight for their chance for glory. But do politics sometimes muddy the waters?

There have been many accusations tossed around about the IBJJF, namely that Brazilian referees will make things happen for Brazilian competitors. I haven’t seen too many bad referee’s calls (though I’ve personally been victim to a couple) but there was one instance that I saw on the Facebooks Webs today posted by a facebook friend of a facebook friend.

Jorden Reichenbach: “I just watched a ref stop a match in the Blue belt division due to a knee bar dq. In the refs mind he called it a DQ and got the competitor’s to line up to award the win to the other competitor. Before he made the call he left the mats to talk to Galvao who was the coach of the student that got DQ. An agreement took place in their native language. Then the ref called the head ref over. The head ref, the ref, and Galvao talked for a few minutes then the ref went on the mats and gave the win to Galvao s student. This is everything that is wrong with this place. If that was my student the ref would have made the call and walked off the mats. But because it’s Galvao….. The whole crowd started booing”

This individual asserted that he had watched a blue belt match in which one competitor went for a knee bar on the other (which is illegal) prompting the referee to stop the match to DQ the culprit. After stopping the match the referee had a long conversation with the offending competitor’s coach, Andre Galvao, at which point he declared the offending competitor the victor of the match.

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Without sound it may be difficult to make certain determinations, but something seems off. It is unclear whether or not the competitor being knee barred tapped, and if they did tap, did they tap to the knee bar or something else?

If Galvao in fact convinced the ref to give his student the win, did HE do anything wrong as the student’s coach? The truth is, your coach should be there to help you win. Learn lessons on the mat at the gym, in competition the coach’s objective is to ensure victory. If there is foul play at work here, it might actually be on the referee’s part…

Update:

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The Atos Competitor has won the bracket

See Full Bracket At IBJJF.COM Watch Live At FloGrappling