After Loyd Irvin had said about corruption in IBJJF. Romero Jacare, leader of Alliance had this to say:
From Jacare Calvacanti’s facebook:
“I am not here to advocate for the IBJJF Federation but I do not think there is corruption or anything like that with the referees. They make mistakes and need to get better of course, but to accuse them of corruption is a little bit too much. Just a few weeks back at the Atlanta Open we had a match for the final of the open division black belt between Lucas Lepri (Alliance) and DJ Jackson (LIrvin)so one American and one Brazilian the score was even on points and in my opinion Lucas pushed the pace and DJ waited to counter attack or whatever at the end the refs decided to give the win to DJ Jackson which I totally disagreed and I saw in many occasions the decisions going both ways. About having Hillary as a head referee the Alliance Team is totally against that as a ref OK but head ref no way period. Just to remember the last world gi championship in Long Beach she was the ref in the final match of the brown belt open class between one of our athletes and she made several really, really bad calls changing the result of that match she admitted she made the mistakes cried and apologized to me in person so refs make mistakes yes, we didn’t go out and cried or accused anyone of corruption. Just to finish instead of accusing and steering so much controversy about a mistake or an anti American thing from the Brazilians refs what about teaching the fighters to behave like gentleman’s and step on the podium to receive their medals and accept the fact that winning and loosing is part of any sport.This is my sincere opinion not love not hate. Best regards.”
Lloyd Irvin’s response to Jacare:
“As head of the #1 BJJ Team in the World I respect anything and everything you have to
say but you’re 100% incorrect about there not being corruption within the Referees. Maybe it hasn’t affected you but it has affected me for well over a decade from events in
Brazil over a decade ago all the way to events in the US now. This is way bigger than any one match or event now,I’ve already talked to people inside of the ibjjf and they
know that there is a problem, they are working on it they said, banning certain refs, etc. but to say that it isn’t happening is simply not true, but like I said I respect your opinion.
As far as DJ vs Lucas the main ref gave it to Lucas and he was absolutely disgusted when he had to raise DJ’s hand. The photo very clearly shows that. But I respect your opinion that
you feel that Lucas won. Lucas is a beast, it was an honor for one of my young guys to even be on the mat with Lucas.
As far as Hillary is concerned I’m not sure about what match you’re talking about but clearly you said she made a mistake that cost you the match, she admitted it, cried you said and
you and the Alliance Team are totally against her being a head ref. That is duly noted, I can understand 110% that your entire team not wanting a ref that has cost you a match
as the head ref for anymore of your matches. This is exactly my point, I don’t want that either, So lets not have Hillary be the head ref for any of your teams matches, and lets not
have any of the refs that have made mistakes costing my guys matches the head refs for any of our matches. I will agree to that for sure! As a side note there is no way you could accuse Hillary of corruption, she is not a part of the inner circle, she is not in charge of assigning refs to work certain matches, she is not in charge of assigning the head ref and side refs, so you could never accuse her of corruption because she isn’t in a situation to be corrupt.”
