At IBJJF No Gi Worlds, like in most other tournaments, there were moments of controversy in which people felt they had been wronged either by referees or by the rules themselves. One disqualification, however, had absolutely no controversy surrounding it. Check out this video of a competitor deliberately reaping into a heel hook entry for the DQ:
Black belt takes DQ instead of an L
Losing 16-2, David Mitchell opted for a DQ instead of an L. He knew the rules, right?
Posted by FloGrappling on Sunday, December 17, 2017
For a video that runs under 1 minute, this gives us a lot to unpack and think about…
For starters, let’s talk about the iniquities of the winner: he took mount on his opponent, knowing he had cinched his win; he chose to disengage rather than try to finish, which ultimately prompted the loser of the match to end the match early by eating a disqualification…
Disengagement is a tactic that many use. I personally don’t like it. Also, this moment shows us how disinterested many competitors are in winning by submission. Shouldn’t submission be the ultimate goal of any competitor? Why the hell would you stand up off of mount when you have your opponent trapped right there and you can start setting up submissions?
Many of the comments on the video support the loser of the match, saying that he was the real winner, or that he was a hero for doing this. Other comments are not so complimentary.
The fact is that there were 2 minutes remaining in the match. Rather than take a DQ loss the competitor could have continued fighting till the bitter end and could have tried to submit his opponent (outscoring would be unlikely with a 16-2 deficit.)
Another point to bear in mind is that when you sign up for a competition you are in a way also agreeing to certain rules of engagement. Would there be a functional difference if the losing competitor decided to start striking the ultimate winner for a DQ loss? When you start deliberately breaking rules where is the line drawn? It is also possible to seriously injure someone when you go for an illegal move because they may not recognize your movements or be ready to brace themselves properly.
On the other hand this was a black belt match, why are black belts not allowed to reap and/or go for heel hooks?
So what do you think? Is the loser of this match a hero? Is he a cheater? Is he a coward for not trying to fight it out till the last second? Or does it not really matter?
