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World class grappler Haisam Rida appears to have got a chance to flex his street fight credentials recently. The 2021 IBJJF American Nationals NoGi champion black belt grappler recently made the jump over to repping Craig Jones’ B-Team grappling squad. Prior to 2023 he competed at numerous international competitions as a member of Assembly Jiu Jitsu. This time, however, it seems he got a little extracirricular work in.
Jones posted a short clip to his Instagram page, featuring what he claims was the aftermath of an attempted car theft. Apparently, the unfortunate man being loaded on to the stretcher in the background tried to jack Haisam’s ride, and got a whole heap of trouble instead.
By all appearances it doesn’t seem that Haisam was too shook up by the experience, as he can be seen in the foreground apparently explaining the series of events to the arresting officers. While he did re-post the video to his own social media, he has yet to make a public statement about the incident.
Haisam Rida and the armbar heard round the world
While Haisam has had a rough run in recent grappling contests, dropping his last four matches and six of his last seven (with only a DQ to account for the lone win in that run), his profile on the international grappling scene shot to new heights last year when he hit what’s been known as the ‘armbar heard round the world.’ The move was good enough to capture the title of FloGrappling’s 2022 Submission of the Year.
Part of that was the major platform where the submission took place, in the opening round of the 2022 ADCCs. But the bigger deal was who it took place against. Just one minute into his bout against 5x IBJJF world NoGi champion Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu, Haisam stuffed a shot, hit the transition and tapped the Jiu Jitsu legend out.
The win marked just the 12th time in his nearly 20-year grappling career that Abreu had been forced to tap out.
Who is Haisam Rida?
Born in Ghana, Haisam’s family moved to Tokyo in 2009, when his father was hired to work at a Japanese construction company. The 6’3″ ‘Giraffe’ started his BJJ career just one year later at the age of 17. After several years of training, Haisam moved to the Carpe Diem Academy as a brown belt, with an eye toward a professional grappling career. He first started competing professionally in 2018, winning the IBJJF Asian Open championship that same year. He currently lives and trains in Texas.
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