In a remarkable turn of events, highly acclaimed grappler Haisam Rida recently found himself putting his skills to use outside of the grappling mat.
Renowned as the 2021 IBJJF American Nationals NoGi champion black belt grappler, Rida has now joined forces with Craig Jones’ esteemed B-Team grappling squad, marking an exciting new chapter in his career.
Previously, Rida had competed on the international stage as a member of Assembly Jiu Jitsu. However, this time, he found himself engaged in a rather unexpected encounter.
Craig Jones took to his Instagram page to share a short clip that supposedly captured the aftermath of an attempted car theft. The individual seen being loaded onto a stretcher in the background had apparently tried to break into Haisam’s vehicle, only to find himself entangled in a whole heap of trouble instead.
Despite the ordeal, Haisam appears remarkably composed in the foreground of the video, seemingly explaining the sequence of events to the arresting officers. While he did repost the footage on his own social media, he has yet to release a public statement regarding the incident.
While Rida has faced a challenging period in recent grappling competitions, losing his last four matches and six out of his last seven (with a disqualification accounting for his lone victory during that stretch), he broke out with a performance at Quintet back in the day and has been steadily become more famous.
Rida had a big win in the opening round of the 2022 ADCCs, just one minute into his bout, he submitted former ADCC winner Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu.
Haisam Rida had a highly unorthodox upbringing. He was born in Ghana before his family relocated to Tokyo in 2009 when his father secured a position at a Japanese construction company.
Standing at an impressive height of 6’3″ and affectionately known as the ‘Giraffe,’ Rida commenced his BJJ journey just a year later, at the age of 17. After years of dedicated training, he transitioned to the Carpe Diem Academy as a brown belt, setting his sights on a professional grappling career. In 2018, he made his professional debut, clinching the IBJJF Asian Open championship in the same year.
