A local no gi Jiu-Jitsu match resulted in one grappler suffering a completely unnecessary injury after he was already choked unconscious, because of a catastrophic error made by the referee. The event in question was the Versus Invitational and the promotion had put together a pair of grand prix tournaments alongside several superfights and a main event that featured ONE Championship world champion Reinier de Ridder. This particular match was actually the final of the under 88kg grand prix, where Sven Groten and Rene Haendel met after each winning their first two matches.
It was early on in the match and Groten started to engage with Haendel’s guard in order to pass, but Haendel was able to shoot his hips up for a triangle choke when he stepped in. Haendel transitioned to the rear-triangle choke from there and locked his legs up tight, forcing Groten to his back where he was attempting to defend the choke at first. Things were progressing normally at this point when Groten tapped to the submission and the referee made his first glaring mistake by missing the tap and allowing Groten to be put to sleep.
The referee then continued this error and made it even worse by not recognising that Groten was unconscious, and that the arm that he had tapped with had gone limp. Things went from bad to catastrophic at this point, as Haendel was also unaware that he had put his opponent to sleep and he began applying an armbar. With no ability to resist, Groten’s arm was immediately bent out of position and Haendel appealed to the referee to stop the match while the commentators can be heard screaming that Groten was unconscious.
The referee then finally moved in and ended the match but it was far too late and his error had led to Groten suffering an unnecessary injury despite tapping and already being rendered unconscious. Groten has already shared an image of himself on social media since the match to confirm that his elbow was dislocated, although thankfully there was no damage to the bone. Instances like this really demonstrate just how important the role of a referee is, and how badly things can go within just a few seconds.
The video of the grappler suffering an injury as a result of referee error after being choked unconscious at the latest Versus Grappling event was uploaded to the official Twitter account of Max Randall:
Worst ref job in history at yesterdays Versus invitational.
Guy taps, then goes to sleep, then gets his arm snapped while unconscious, THEN keeps getting choked for like 7 seconds while asleep.
THEN the ref does the useless Brazilian-leg-lift.#BJJ #MMA pic.twitter.com/M2E3vAuVlU
— Max Randall (@Max_Randall) June 24, 2024
