Rener Gracie and Tom DeBlass had a live discussion about the $46 million BJJ injury lawsuit.
A BJJ student was awarded $46 million after being injured in a class.
Rener Gracie was an expert witness for the plaintiff in the case.
The news sparked massive amounts of conversation online, with some criticism directed at Rener for his involvement.
Rener shared a video explaining his testimony and his opinion on the injury being the result of negligence or not.
Rener donated his entire fee as an expert witness to charity.
The live discussion between Rener Gracie and Tom DeBlass was an educational experience for the BJJ community.
Some highlights:
Tom DeBlass was side eying the mentioning of ‘spiking’ vs the actual video of the incident. DeBlass credited the ‘spiking’ to a website – and the reality is the terminology was actually used by Rener Gracie in his first post outlining the incident.
Gracie has since deleted this post and posted a video response instead.
Rener Gracie and Tom DeBlass debunked the fact that Rener Gracie had anything to do with the amount of money jury awarded to Jack Greener. They also clarified that there was an attempt to settle with the insurance company.
Tom DeBlass didn’t agree with Rener Gracie characterizing the incident as instructor’s fault. According to what Gracie read from the transcript of the trial, judge instructed him to not consider if Greener
“The judge interjected at this point it says the court and it says Mr. Greener did not do anything wrong his negligence is not something for you to consider so ask another question please he told that to the attorney”
According to them, Clark Gracie really put the final nail in the BJJ academy’s defense once he was asked how he taught the technique of rolling backtake.
The two also addressed Greener’s wrestling background and if calling him a beginner is adequate way to describe his level of grappling experience at the time of the accident.
The two discussed the fact that BJJ has no unified standards when it comes to declaring who is a beginner which makes cases like the Greener one even more complicated.
Clark Gracie testifying that he did not teach the technique with the arm trap variation
Rener Gracie tried to defend using the term spiking in his own post.
You can watch the full 75 minute talk here.
