Describing himself as a dangerous competitor as opposed to a dirty competitor, Shahgholi explains that his mindset going into every match, especially with hefty prize money on the line, is, ‘It’s either kill or be killed.’
“In the competition standpoint when there’s 50 grand on the line, my opponent is trying to break me and submit me so I have the same intentions,” Shahgholi said. “In the training room I’m preparing and practicing to physically break my opponent down mentally and physically. It’s called breaking mechanics.”
The keyboards have been on fire and almost every angle has been breached, from criticism to hatred to flat out insults. It’s a rare occasion where a 16-year-old has put himself in the public eye where members of the same community are in the clear to tee off without filter. What they don’t know is Pat Shahgholi isn’t your typical 16-year-old.
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“I love it. I love the hate,” Shahgholi said. “The next competition they’re going to keep seeing me for the rest of their time. They’re going to keep seeing me on their feed or YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, SnapChat, they’re just going to keep seeing me and they’re going to be mad. They’re mad at what I’m doing but they can’t stop that. They have to deal with it.”
Shahgholi explains that if the public continues to build him up as “the BJJ bad guy” and promoters enjoy it, he’ll embrace the role. He knows that there’s a slight chance he’s put a target on himself but, in all reality, it isn’t going to change much. It’s not like they were going to treat him much differently before his viral moment.
“There may be a little bit of [a target] but maybe not,” Shahgholi said. “I think everybody is just kind of mad, but what do you expect from the jiu jitsu game? People are training to break each other.”
The only request Shahgholi has for the general public is that they watch the entirety of the match and post-match before accusing him of being classless. Sure, he torqued the heel hook and sure, he celebrated, but he didn’t leave Vieira there to limp home. He took in the moment and paid respect, whether you saw it or not.
