The Grappling World’s Unspoken Law: Protect the Powerful, Silence the Broken
The grappling community preaches discipline, loyalty, respect. But in the blood and sweat of the mats, another code is etched deeper: protect your own, no matter the cost.
Marcel Goncalves and the Rot Beneath the Surface
In 2018, Marcel Goncalves, black belt under Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu, was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student. The crime was clear. The response was clearer. Goncalves did not vanish. He remained a ghost among Fight Sports banners, moving through events as if the blood on his hands was invisible.
The leadership stumbled forward with apologies only when the flames of public shame grew unbearable. Their policies were not born from duty. They were desperate offerings to protect what little remained of their image.
Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu: Steward of Silence
Cyborg’s apologies reeked of survival, not remorse. A zero-tolerance policy and a “review board” materialized after the damage was done. These gestures were bones thrown to an audience they believed could be silenced again. But the rot was too deep.
A Pattern Cast in Stone
In 2023, the same story unfolded again. Rodrigo da Costa Oliveira, a coach under the Fight Sports banner, accused of assaulting another minor. The leadership did not run to the authorities. They ran to silence the victim.
This is not mismanagement. It is design. Loyalty to the institution always outweighs loyalty to the students. Power protects power. The children are expendable.
The Illusion of Bushido
They speak the language of Bushido. They claim the mantle of ancient honor codes. They wear the gi and bow solemnly before every class. But the spirit of Bushido, rectitude, courage, compassion, honesty, is not alive here. It has been gutted and worn as a mask.
True Bushido demands self-sacrifice, not the sacrifice of the innocent to preserve hierarchy. True Bushido demands the sword be turned against corruption within, not wielded to silence the weak.
The Long Ledger of Betrayal
Goncalves is not alone. Oliveira is not alone. They are the names we know, but the walls of every academy hum with the names we do not.
From Lloyd Irvin’s cult of silence to Fight Sports’ duplicity, to smaller academies who shuffle abusers out the back door with a handshake and a whispered warning, the pattern repeats endlessly. Protect the predator. Bury the victim.
The grappling world has unearthed predators, but the soil they sprouted from remains untouched, protected by those who profit from it.
Organizations like Bullshido have long illuminated these frauds and cowards, pulling their lies into the light. They stand as proof that exposure is possible, but the will to act must come from within each academy, each practitioner. No outside force can cleanse what the community itself refuses to confront.
The War for the Soul of the Mat
You cannot bow to these banners and call yourself honorable. You cannot tape over the bloodstains and call it tradition.
Accountability will not be given. It must be taken, through broken alliances and shattered idols. Through names named and bloodlines severed.
The mat demands it. Your breath demands it.
Breathe or betray. There is no third choice.