Mahamed Aly. IBJJF
Last weekend the Washington, D.C. Open was held by the IBJJF, and Mahamed Aly walked out a double gold winner, having beaten the ultra-heavy and absolute fields.
The high point of Aly’s campaign was his semifinal match in the absolute. Before closing out the final with his teammate Tim Spriggs, Aly faced wrestler Gregory Walker, and something unusual happened.
Walker, who had defeated DJ Jackson in the middleweight final, threw himself into the open division. Against Aly, however, he had a tougher time. After getting taken down twice, the wrestler ended up finished via flying armbar. That was when things got weird.
“He took me down twice,” Aly told Graciemag. “But he didn’t keep me on the ground to score. I applied my two takedowns, earning points, put a knee on his belly, and managed to finish with the flying armbar. Except that, as I jumped, I wound up hitting my thigh to his nose. The doctor came to look at him, but the guy’s wife ran to the mat.”
“She tried to check on her husband,” Aly continued, “but was interrupted by the ref. She yelled that she was with him, and stared me down with wrath in her eyes. I got scared and thought, ‘Man, what do I do now? Run? Give her a flying armbar as well? Kneel and apologize?’ I didn’t know.”
“Afterwards she was outside and told me that wasn’t the end of it,” he added. “She was a little agitated. My teacher intervened and said I had no history of hurting my opponents on purpose. They talked it over, and things cooled down. But it was a good story to remember in the future.”
You can watch the incident in this video.
