The world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is known for having some of the most respectable athletes amongst their ranks, a sport than has been around for well over a century now. That all changed recently at the IBJJF 2016 European Open, where a true Lack of sportsmanship in bjj took place. According to a Facebook post by competitor Tuomas Kokkonen, he submitted another competitor by the name of Sasha Marquerite with a rear naked choke in the second round. An error by the table referee marked Sasha Marquerite as the winner, which Kokkonen was not aware of at the time.
Tuomas Konnonen FIN vs. Sacha Marguerite FRA IBJJF European 2016Tuomas Kokkonen FIN vs. Sacha Marguerite FRA IBJJF European 2016IBJJF official made an human error and marked a wrong winner on the brackets. Sacha Marguerite didn’t correct the officials when they accidentally called his name. He choose to fight two more fights winning one and loosing one. After this mistake was found out IBJJF could do nothing. They refund Kokkonen’s participation fee with apologies. Confronting Marguerite he claimed that Kokkonen was disqualified and he was entitled to continue. No such DQ was ever made by officials of the tournament. Instead officials offered their apologies and refund of Kokkonen’s fee.This video is posted with the permission of FloGrappling to show how the fight actually ended.You can make your own decision on how the fight ended and who won.Share this to show that the community of grapplers world wide does not condone this kind of unsportsmanlike behavior.
Posted by BJJ Suomi on Saturday, January 23, 2016
Marquerite, well aware that he got submitted and then found out that he was accidentally named the winner, decided to continue competing instead of righting the wrong by the table referee. Which meant that Kokkonen, despite winning his bout by submission, was forced to watch the action from the sidelines. Marquerite would go onto win a match in the third round, but was then again defeated in the fourth round and was eliminated from the tournament. Sadly, this is a true Lack of sportsmanship in bjj that not only gave the wrong person an unfair advancement in the tournament, but gave a gracious winner an unfair exit from the same tournament.
Tuomas Kokkonen Posted on Facebook
“My dear Bjj friends,
I want to share you my very bad experience I had today in the IBJJF european open 2016 in Lisboa. I won my first match and on the second one faced Sasha Marquerite from France. He tapped on my RNC choke from the back, and I won, but the table referee accidently marked Sasha Marquerite as a winner of the fight. I had obviously no change of knowing his error. After this i kept waiting my turn while Sasha unfairly went fighting and managed to win one fight and then lost. When I found out about this it was already too late. I don’t blame too much the table judge who marked Sasha as a winner. Big tournament, mistakes can happen. I do however blame Sasha Marquerite for cowardy and absolute lack of sportmanship. We all know the rules. He tapped out and went on fighting and not corrected the table judges mistake. What kind of a person does this? If you know him or meet him on the coming tournaments, just say him that he should be very ashamed of his actions and that BJJ community doesn’t respect anyone who acts like him. Hope you all have better experiences in our deeply loved sport.”
My dear Bjj friends,I want to share you my very bad experience I had today in the IBJJF european open 2016 in Lisboa….
Posted by Tuomas Kokkonen on Thursday, January 21, 2016
I don’t think it’s fair to give so much hate to Sasha! He knew or not but when you are called to the roll in the middle of a competition (specially after loosing) you try to focus on what is happening and not on why you are called! The people to blame are the IBJJF in my opinion.
Sasha did not argue with the organisation but he was called… In the heat of the competition I’m not sure he had a clear vision but put it in perspective and don’t kill him like that. I understand also Tuomas but who did the mistake?
That’s complete bullshit. He knew that he lost his match and was eliminated from the competition. Every single competitor is aware of how the competition works (these rules are explained at the start of the competition, every time): you win, you advance; you lose, you’re eliminated.
He knowingly continued in the competition knowing that he was taking the rightful winner’s place. He’s a cheat.
“when you are called to the roll in the middle of a competition (specially after loosing) you try to focus on what is happening and not on why you are called!”
What? If you’re called to the mat after your lost, your first thought should be, “This isn’t right, what is going on?” Everyone knows how these tournaments work. Taking advantage of an administrative error is poor sportmanship. Period.
So true!
Allso Shasha lied on Facebook that Tuomas was disqualified after the fight for crossfacing, which was an lie ofcourse…