Keenan Cornelius immediately reacted to Copa Podio’s decision to penalize the use of the lapel guard, for entertainment reasons, in its upcoming middleweight GP.
Cornelius must have felt that this was partially aimed at him since he is such a heavy user of the lapel guard and his own ‘Worm Guard’ with which he was successful in defeating Leandro Lo on points at the last Worlds. Cornelius competed in Copa Podio in 2013.
Read the statement of Copa Podio’s President, Jefferson Mayca HERE
Here is Keenan’s statement from his instagram account:
“The entertainment of Jiu-Jitsu does not lay in the spectacle of the fights themselves. As most of these are slow moving and boring anyways. But it lies in the appreciation of the intricate techniques and innovations of the sport. When the closed guard was first used in martial arts no one could deal with the position. No one could escape and it revolutionized the martial arts. Where would Jiu-Jitsu be if someone had declared closed guard as illegal on the sport. The same can be said about any innovation. To be afraid of change is what really hinders the sport. Progress is impossible without change, and those who can’t change their minds can’t change anything.”
