The owner of Team Centinela BJJ Academy Julio Vallejo has made a statement regarding the controversial training video featuring his school posted to the McDojo Life Instagram account earlier today. Vallejo stated that the instructor, Professor Fernando Di Pierro, was demonstrating the technique for fun and with no malicious intent toward the student featured in the video. He claimed that no one was hurt and that class continued as normal. This statement was first sent to McDojo Life who then shared it on both Facebook and Instagram.
The video features Di Pierro demonstrating a harsh counter to the lockdown by standing up and putting pressure on the opponent’s knee. The student being demonstrated on appeared to scream in pain as he tapped out. Di Pierro appeared to ignore the student, proceeding to slap him in his torso several times before the video ended. Since being posted to the McDojo Life Instagram account, the video has been viewed over 50,000 times.
McDojo Life has also responded to the statement by Vallejo, claiming these cases are what make him ask questions regarding the context of the videos he finds.
“Stuff like this makes my job very difficult. Did he hurt a student on purpose or was he just playing around? I try to find out as much as I can and give the respect of sharing this letter so people can get both perspectives. He apparently has done a lot of good for people, but does that mean he didn’t have a lapse in judgment? That is very difficult to figure out. For everyone’s sake, I hope it is just out of context.” Said McDojo Life when asked for a comment.
