A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt is generating serious debate online after he returned his bronze medal at an awards ceremony, all of it captured on video that has since gone viral.
The competitor, identified as Rudy “Milhouse” Becerra, a black belt out of City Wolves El Paso with over 100,000 Instagram followers, finished third in a three-man bracket at a recent no-gi competition.
After standing on the podium and posing for photos, Becerra carefully wrapped the medal and placed it back on the officials’ table, gesturing to let them know he was leaving it behind. He then posted the clip online alongside a follow-up commentary video laying out exactly why he did it.
The reaction was immediate and divided.
Thousands of comments poured in from people who were not happy. But Becerra pushed back on the criticism, arguing that most of his harshest critics have no experience in competitive grappling.
“There’s like a thousand comments on this video now and people are completely upset,” he said in a follow-up video, “but most of those people, I kind of went through their profile and most of them don’t train, so they don’t understand what happened here.”
In his explanation, Becerra did not shy away from the facts of the day. There were three competitors. He lost both of his matches. One of his opponents injured his foot early on, which made the second match harder going in.
“There were three competitors and I lost both,” he said. “The first dude popped my foot and going into the second match, I mean I was already messed up. Lost both matches by points. It is what it is.”
He was clear that standing on the podium was an act of respect toward the two men who beat him. What he refused to do was walk away and post about it as though it were a real win.
“I stood on the podium out of respect for both of the dudes who beat me,” he said, “but then after that I didn’t make a post with my medal saying I got third place. No bro, I didn’t win anything.”
Becerra also addressed a common point of confusion in the comments. He does list a third-place finish on his biography online, but he was quick to clarify the context. That result came from the No-Gi World Championships, where he competed through four high-level opponents just to reach the podium.
“That was world and I beat four other top-level competitors just to get to that third place, so put some respect on that,” he said.
The reasoning behind returning this particular medal goes back further than this one event. Becerra said the mindset was shaped years earlier through a conversation with his friend and training partner. The two made a pact together that neither of them would celebrate or publicize any result they felt they had not genuinely earned.
“If we were to ever win by default, you didn’t win anything,” Becerra explained. “If you got to the podium by default, you’re not gonna post your picture with your medal.”
For Becerra, the point is also about the message that gets sent when athletes with large platforms post every trophy and podium photo regardless of context. “The reason this video was made to begin with is because at the time I didn’t really have as big of a following as I do now, but I do know people who do have a big following and they will post stuff like this,” he said.
“What message does that send to the people coming up? That you’re always supposed to win? That you’re never gonna lose? Bro, you’re out of your mind. This is jiu-jitsu and there is a whole lot of losing involved.”
He also acknowledged that his standard is not for everyone. Some people measure success by simply registering, making weight, showing up, and competing. He respects that perspective, but separates it from his own.
“If getting to the tournament is a win for you, that’s cool,” he said, “but that’s not a win for me. This is a competition. I come from a generation where we just don’t believe in getting a trophy just for showing up, and that’s just kind of what this feels like.”
“No one cares about everything you did leading up to the competition,” Becerra said. “People care about performance. My sponsors care about performance. They’re not here to say, ‘oh yeah, well thanks, you clocked in and you trained all week long.’ We need to see some results.”
The response from the BJJ community online has been genuinely split. Many practitioners sided with Becerra, arguing that in a three-man bracket the bronze is functionally a participation award and that a true competitor has every right to feel that way.
Others pushed back, pointing out that he showed up, made weight, competed, and got hurt in the process, all of which deserves some acknowledgment.
A few commenters noted that while they disagreed with the decision, Becerra handled the moment with composure, carefully placing the medal back rather than tossing it aside, and waving politely to officials as he walked off.
Becerra’s Instagram caption was characteristically unapologetic: “Say NO to participation trophies. Give it back. We don’t want to hear about it.” In his follow-up commentary he added, “It’s a competitive sport. I’d like to apologize to nobody.”
Dude returns 3rd place medal in a 3 man bracket
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u/ColoradoRokkie in
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