Leandro Lo. Erin Herle/GRACIEMAG
As usual, this year the IBJJF Worlds produced many moves that drew the attention and comments of the BJJ community. One that was hotly debated on Graciemag’s social media took place in the first round of the men’s absolute division, on Saturday.
Eventual champion Leandro Lo faced Nick Schrock (Ribeiro JJ), and their fight ended all of a sudden. While Lo was playing guard, Nick saw an unattended foot and attacked it. But the referee stopped him in his tracks, interpreting that there had been an infraction, and thus the young American was out.
What did we learn from this? Where did he go wrong?
According to comments overheard at the Walter Pyramid, the infraction was, indeed, due to crossing the leg over the knee. The scenario of crossing the knee in the process of doing a leg lock arose because both fighters were in a position to employ the straight foot lock; so, if one competitor places his opponent’s leg over his own leg, the rule says he is inducing his opponent to commit the error of crossing, which causes the disqualification.
To other black-belts watching, however, Nick wound up twisting Lo’s foot in the opposite direction to the legal one: as he attacked with the adapted lock and twisted Lo’s leg against the direction of the knee, he was purportedly risking Lo’s knee joints.
Watch the controversial move here and see whom you agree with.
