BJJ black belt pins aggressor in 7-Eleven confrontation

This week saw an example of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu working in a real-life scenario when a third-degree black belt detained an aggressor in a 7-Eleven supermarket. The black belt (Idriz Redzovic) was a third-degree which means that he’s probably trained BJJ for over 20 years, given the time it typically takes to achieve such a senior rank. With this in mind, it’s not too surprising that he was able to hold his opponent down with such ease.

According to Redzovic, the aggressor assaulted one of the 7-Eleven staff members, so he jumped in, took him down, and then tied his arm behind his back. This hold is often referred to as the ‘gift wrap’ in BJJ and is an extremely powerful position to get to – as it effectively nullifies the opponent’s arm and allows you to mount them.

Such was the power of this pin that Redzovic was able to hold the attacker down for a number of minutes before the police arrived and arrested him. This is a good example of BJJ working whereby it doesn’t need to be violent. As we can see in the video, Redzovic didn’t need to punch or attack his opponent and was able to nullify his behavior without causing physical harm.

Speaking on the incident, Redzovic said “I saw him swing at the 711 Employee that’s when I jumped in to control him ’til the cops came. I was so calm; because of my faith and my 20-plus years of teaching and training Jiu-Jitsu.”