The Fight Sports sexual misconduct lawsuit is still ongoing and as of Monday 14th February, the deadlines in the case have been extended. Now, both sides have been given the date of 19th January in order to complete all of their discovery and the ‘trial ready’ date is set as 20th February. This is not a binding date of when the trial will commence but is instead a date that both parties have been instructed to be ready by and the actual trial date will be set shortly beforehand. Even this isn’t a guarantee of course, because they may reach a settlement before then or the case may be withdrawn.
This lawsuit all began when a BJJ black belt under Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu and a Fight Sports affiliate instructor, Marcel Goncalves, was charged in sexual assault case. The offense allegedly took place in 2018 and upon his arrest, Goncalves actually admitted to having sex with the minor in question although he later sought to rely on a defence of insanity as a result of CTE. Naturally the Fight Sports team quickly distanced themselves from Goncalves and severed all ties with him, while Abreu stripped him of the black belt that he had previously awarded him.
This was not the only issue surrounding Fight Sports however, as Mo Jassim made public the knowledge that another Fight Sports coach, Rodrigo da Costa Oliveira, had also allegedly sexually abused one of his 16-year-old students. That is an important part of why this sexual misconduct lawsuit has been levied against Fight Sports and Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu personally. It implicates Abreu for his alleged mishandling of the sexual abuse and alleges that Abreu had prior knowledge of sexual misconduct. Additionally, the plaintiff states that by failing to take action to curb such behaviour, Abreu created a culture at Fight Sports that allowed sexual abuse to take place.
