Matt Serra has revealed that he was actually told to take a dive in the final of ADCC 2001, and the request came from his coach Renzo Gracie. Serra is of course best-known for his MMA career and being one of only two men to ever beat Georges St-Pierre, but he was a fantastic grappler long before then. He was actually the very first American to receive his black belt from Renzo Gracie and won a bronze medal in the IBJJF World Championship as a brown belt in 1999. It was this reputation he built that led to him being invited to ADCC 2001, where he would compete in the under 77kg division.
Serra had three tough matches but he won two by submission and beat Jean Jacques Machado on points in a battle that was awarded ‘match of the tournament’. That put him into the final against another BJJ legend, Marcio Feitosa, but that’s when he was asked not to actually win the title:
“Renzo asked me to, you know, take the f***ing dive… He said ‘listen…’ and this is exactly what he said, he goes ‘Matt, they’re looking at Americans as like that they’re all for themselves, and this will prove that you’re one of us.’”
What Serra alluded to is that it was commonplace for younger grapplers to allow their coaches or teammates who had seniority to beat them, as a mark of respect. This is far from the only time that competitors have been accused of throwing matches for their teammates at ADCC. Many would think that this practice is something that you wouldn’t see today but it does still happen in some major tournaments. In fact, ADCC competitors have been accused of fixing matches for their teammates as recently as 2019. It was far more common in the past though, and Matt Serra even explained that his loss to Feitosa at ADCC 2001 was related to another fixed match in the previous year:
“Renzo did tell me, and he didn’t have to tell me, but Marcio did leave his neck out for Renzo the Abu Dhabi before that. I wanna add that so I’m not s**tting here on Marcio, this is the way they’re playing it back then. Renzo was his senior, he left his neck out for Renzo.”
Serra was talking about the previous under 77kg division, where Renzo Gracie and Marcio Feitosa both won their first three matches and met in the final. Renzo was then able to submit Feitosa with a guillotine choke to win his second ADCC title. Even though he clearly wasn’t a fan of the idea, Serra eventually agreed to follow suit:
“I told Renzo, look, I see what’s going on, I get it, the seniority thing. I’ll take a bullet for you. You want me to give up this medal for you, you got it, but I’m not letting them tap me.”
The full interview with Matt Serra where he reveals that Renzo Gracie asked him to take a dive at ADCC 2001 was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Lytes Out MMA history podcast:
