- A jiu-jitsu match referee negligently let a fighter sleep and break his opponent’s arm before stopping the fight
- The losing fighter is now in a stable condition
A referee is now under fire after standing by as a fighter submitted his opponent until he lost consciousness and even broke his arm.
The referee did a terrible job
The jiu-jitsu match between Sven Groten and Rene Haendel at Versus International this past weekend did not go down as many may have expected after the referee in charge chose not to do something during the most crucial part of the fight.
The pair was normally battling for advantage on the ground when Haendel managed to catch Groten in a reverse triangle choke position. Haendel then worked his way into a possible armbar but Groten already passed out due to the choke even before the armbar attempt.
Unaware that Groten was already unconscious, Haendel continued to pull off the armbar which saw Groten’s arm snapping like a bar of chocolate. As the horrible scenario happened in front of him, the referee did nothing to stop the fight.
It even took the official a few more seconds before realizing that Groten was out and his arm was already hanging loose.
Watch the clip below:
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
Groten swore to bounce back
Despite suffering a gruesome injury and a tough loss, Groten remains optimistic. He is now in good spirits and even vowed to bounce back stronger.
“So that sucked,” Groten wrote on an Instagram post. “Got choked out and my elbow dislocated. No bone damage, more info to come.
“I’m in the hand of the best medical professionals with @sportsdoccgn and @pi.physio,” he continued. “Thanks to the crew of @versus.events for caring and all reaching out individually. Ref failed terribly though. There’s absolute no blame on my opponent @rene_haen you where better yesterday. I’ll crush you next time we compete. That’s a promise. I’ll be back. Better.”
As for the referee, online combat sports fans unsurprisingly showered him with criticisms.
