BRIDGEPORT, CT — Confirming that he has been in the security industry for the better part of two decades and spent “a good solid ninety minutes” on YouTube the morning of the event, tournament referee Dale Kowalczyk defended his officiating performance at last Saturday’s Tri-State Submission Grappling Open after awarding three consecutive advantages to the competitor who was actively being swept, passed, and mounted.
“I’ve seen a lot of chaos in my time,” said Kowalczyk, 44, who has worked the door at The Rusty Nail Bar and Grille in Bridgeport since 2007. “I know what control looks like. I know what aggression looks like. I’ve broken up over three hundred fights. I think I have a pretty good eye for what’s happening in a physical confrontation.”
What was happening, according to multiple coaches and competitors at the Farmington Sports Complex, was that Marcus Vell — a purple belt from Ridge Road BJJ — was being systematically passed, mounted, and eventually submitted by Tyler Brockhurst in a match that drew three coaching outbursts, one formal protest, and a video that made the rounds in the grappling community.
Kowalczyk awarded the advantages to Brockhurst.
“The guy on the bottom was being really active,” Kowalczyk explained, consulting notes he had written on his palm. “He was moving around a lot. In my experience, the person who’s moving more is usually doing more. That’s true in parking lots and I believe it’s true on the mats as well.”
Kowalczyk was hired to referee the two-day event by tournament director Sandra Whitmore, who confirmed she had asked him specifically about his background in “physical adjudication” before extending the offer.
“Dale came very highly recommended,” said Whitmore, who runs the Tri-State Submission Grappling Open with her husband Brad and their labradoodle Theodore. “He has nineteen years of professional experience managing high-conflict physical situations. That’s not nothing. That’s actually more mat-adjacent experience than most of our volunteer refs.”
Whitmore acknowledged that Kowalczyk had not competed in or trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu prior to the event, but noted that he had “done his research the morning of” and arrived with printed notes.
“He really prepared,” Whitmore said. “He printed things. On paper. That’s commitment.”
The printed notes — a partially-annotated transcript of a YouTube video titled “BJJ Explained for Absolute Beginners (12 Min)” uploaded by Grand Master Rafi (2,300 subscribers, Fresno, CA) — served as Kowalczyk’s primary reference document throughout the tournament. A second video, “What Is an Advantage? BJJ Rules You Didn’t Know,” was also queued up on his phone, but Kowalczyk fell asleep around four minutes in.
“I got the gist,” he said. “Advantages go to the person doing the attempting. I wrote that down. That’s the word they used. ‘Attempting.’ I felt like Marcus, the guy on the bottom, was doing a lot of attempting.”
Kowalczyk paused.
“I may have mixed up which one was Marcus.”
The three consecutive advantages were awarded over a span of four minutes in what competitors described as one of the more one-sided purple belt matches of the day. Brockhurst, who had not asked for and was not expecting the advantages, said he did not realize he was receiving them until the match was over.
“I thought I was losing,” said Brockhurst, 29, a systems analyst from Hamden. “I had him in full mount. He was trying to bridge and escape. The ref kept pointing at me and saying ‘advantage’ in this really confident voice. I assumed I was doing something wrong.”
Brockhurst won the match by submission at the 6:12 mark. He did not podium, having lost his next match to a seventeen-year-old brown belt who was, in every measurable way, the one doing the attacking.
Vell, who filed the formal protest, was told the results were final.
“I’m not even angry,” said Vell, who has trained for six years and competed at eleven tournaments. “I mean, I’m angry. But I’m also kind of amazed. He gave Tyler the advantage when Tyler was sitting in mount with his hands on his knees looking at the clock. That takes a special kind of confidence. You have to really believe in yourself to look at that and say ‘yeah, that’s the guy.’”
When asked to elaborate on his methodology, Kowalczyk produced a laminated card he had made at a FedEx Office the previous evening. The card contained three columns: “Aggression,” “Passivity,” and “Unclear.” Under “Aggression” he had written: eye contact, loud breathing, defensive posture, moving around on the floor. Under “Passivity”: standing still, not reacting, holding position.
By this rubric, the competitor trapped in mount and attempting an escape was, definitionally, the aggressor.
“He was reacting,” Kowalczyk said. “He had a lot of energy. The guy on top seemed comfortable. In a nightclub, the comfortable guy is usually not the problem.”
He was asked whether he planned to referee again.
“I’ve already reached out to Sandra about the fall classic,” he said. “I told her I’m going to watch the rest of the second video this time. All eleven minutes.”
Whitmore confirmed she had received the inquiry and said she was “weighing her options.”
Theodore the labradoodle was unavailable for comment.
In a follow-up message sent to organizers and competitors via group chat Sunday evening, Kowalczyk noted that he had now watched seven additional YouTube videos, completing what he described as “a full certification track,” and offered to serve as head referee at upcoming tournaments in the greater Bridgeport area at a “professional rate.”
“Nineteen years,” the message concluded. “That doesn’t just disappear.”
As of Monday morning, three gyms had muted the chat.