Top brown belt competitor Sebastian Attard has just been banned from IBJJF competition for one year as a result of his behaviour at No Gi Worlds this year. Attard was competing in both the heavyweight and absolute divisions at the event and after two fantastic runs through tough brackets, he made it into the final of both. He faced a pair of equally talented prospects in those finals; as he stood across from Achilles Rocha in his weight class and Pawel Jaworski in the absolute. He took a silver medal in both divisions, but it wasn’t until he stood on the podium of the absolute division that the controversy occurred.
He raised his middle finger at Jaworski as they posed for photos on the podium, and shared the image on social media to make light of the situation. That wasn’t received well by the IBJJF though, as they reached out to Attard in order to inform him that he is now suspended from their tournaments for a period of one year. It might seem like a harsh punishment to some, but the IBJJF has always taken a dim view of what they see as either unsportsmanlike or unprofessional conduct and Attard is far from the first competitor to fall foul of these rules.
Nicholas Meregali was famously disqualified for giving the finger to members of the crowd during a semi-final match just a few years ago and in fact, Attard isn’t the only athlete who was penalised for conduct at this particular event. Elite wrestler Pat Downey was disqualified as a result of a throat-cutting gesture that he made to his opponent’s corner after winning his final match. A one-year suspension means that Attard will now miss every other major IBJJF event in 2025 and unless he’s incredibly fortunate with the timings, he’ll miss the next edition of the IBJJF No Gi World Championship as well.
Sebastian Attard shared the news that he had been banned from IBJJF competition for one year after giving his opponent the finger on the podium of the IBJJF No Gi World Championship in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
