Pat Downey has recently revealed that he’s not going to be returning to IBJJF competition again after his negative experience last year. Downey has only ever competed in one of their events and he chose to make his promotional debut at the biggest no gi tournament that they hold, the IBJJF No Gi World Championship. Although he’s an elite wrestler and has already beaten BJJ black belts, Downey was only eligible to compete in the blue belt division due to their promotion restrictions. He won every match and would have taken a gold medal, but a fight broke out after he submitted his final opponent and they were both disqualified instead.
Downey first explained that this meant that he wasn’t eligible to actually collect his gold medal, and he was not actually crowned the champion. There was a silver lining though:
“It was a bummer because I didn’t get to score the points for my team Fight Sports either and then I didn’t get my medal but I still got what I came for, my purple belt.”
He also explained that it wasn’t actually the fight that got him disqualified, as his opponent was the one who started that. Instead, it was what came before:
“They said it was for the gestures and stuff. So I guess if he wouldn’t have swung on me and gotten himself DQ’d, he would have won and gotten the gold medal. So it’s pretty crazy, you know? They just don’t like when Brazilians aren’t winning.”
The IBJJF has long been accused of having a bias towards Brazilian competitors, as that is where the organization was founded. It’s something that still comes up today when questionable decisions occur, but Downey has taken his disqualification very seriously:
“You’ll never catch me on the IBJJF again.”
The full interview with Pat Downey where he reveals that he won’t be competing in IBJJF tournaments any more was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Grappler’s Perspective:
