WEST SACRAMENTO, CA — Local blue belt Derek Mendelson, 29, registered for three separate Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments on the same Saturday and attended none of them, gym members confirmed Monday. Mendelson, a two-stripe competitor at Veritas Jiu-Jitsu, had submitted non-refundable entries totaling $385 for events in Roseville, Auburn, and Chico, each scheduled at overlapping times across a 167-mile corridor of Northern California. According to Smoothcomp records reviewed by sources in the gym's group chat, Mendelson was disqualified from all three brackets without contesting a single match. "He said he wanted a big day," said head coach Hector Villalobos, who became aware of the weekend's agenda only after Mendelson posted a screenshot of his registrations to the gym's Slack at 11:47 PM Friday with the caption "let's cook." Mendelson's first stop, the Golden Bear Gi Open in Roseville, required a 7:00 AM weigh-in. He arrived at 7:42 AM, 42 minutes after the scale closed, wearing the same Shoyoroll he had slept in. Tournament staff directed him to a folding table where a volunteer named Kayla explained, as she had already explained that morning to two other competitors, that weigh-ins did not accept late arrivals regardless of distance traveled or sincerity of intent. Mendelson asked if she could "just check anyway." She could not. Mendelson then drove 88 minutes southeast to Auburn for the NorCal Submission Series no-gi event, whose adult male lightweight brackets had been scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM. He arrived at 12:22 PM. His division had concluded. The gold medalist, a purple belt named Tomás Alvarado from a gym 14 miles from Mendelson's own home, had already left the venue to get tacos. A bracket printout posted near the scorer's table still hung on the wall, four names crossed out in pen, and a handwritten note at the bottom reading "DEREK — NO SHOW." Mendelson photographed the bracket. He did not approach any staff member. <figure style="display: block; margin: 1.5em auto; width: 70%; max-width: 500px; border-radius: 2px; border: 1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.08);"><img src="/images/articles/blue-belt-three-tournaments-zero-matches-1.jpg" alt="" style="width:100%; height:auto;" /><figcaption style="font-size:0.75em; color:#888; margin-top:0.3em; font-style:italic; text-align:center;">ThePorra Photo Desk</figcaption></figure> At 2:15 PM, Mendelson began the two-hour drive north on Highway 99 to the West Coast Submission Challenge in Chico, where a seeded 16-man sub-only jackpot was scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM. He stopped twice for gas and once at a rest area off of Woodland, where he ate his second Clif Bar of the day, a chocolate chip. He arrived at the Chico venue at 4:47 PM. Registration had closed 107 minutes earlier. The round of 16 was halfway through. A referee raised a hand to indicate a submission finish. The gym echoed. "You look like you drove here," said a woman at the door. Mendelson, according to two witnesses, replied: "I'm on the list." He was not on the list. Financial records reviewed by this publication show Mendelson paid $385 in non-refundable entry fees, $34 in gasoline, and $9 for a parking garage in Auburn that offered free street parking one block over. He consumed two Clif Bars and no water. His 2018 Honda Civic, odometer reading 112,048 miles, completed the day's itinerary in 5 hours and 41 minutes of driving time and remained the only party present to physically attend all three venues. At Monday's 6:00 PM class, Mendelson told two training partners that the weekend's travel had "burned me out" and that he was planning to "focus on the mental side" of competition. He said he was thinking about a meditation app. He said a lot of top guys have a meditation app. When asked by white belt Sam Reuter what tournaments he had won that weekend, Mendelson said he had been "just getting reps in" and that results "aren't really the point at this stage." <figure style="float: right; width: 40%; max-width: 280px; margin: 0.2em 0 1em 1.5em; border-radius: 4px;"><img src="/images/articles/blue-belt-three-tournaments-zero-matches-2.jpg" alt="" style="width:100%; height:auto;" /><figcaption style="font-size:0.75em; color:#888; margin-top:0.3em; font-style:italic; ">ThePorra Photo Desk</figcaption></figure> Mendelson's self-reported tournament record, posted to the gym group chat on March 3, reads "competitive at this level." His actual Smoothcomp profile, pulled by a purple belt last week during a dispute about sandbagging, reads 2 wins, 14 losses, zero medals since 2023. Both wins came in a single 4-person bracket in which he received a bye and his opponent tapped to a heel hook 90 seconds into the match while visibly concussed. Coach Villalobos, speaking privately, confirmed that Mendelson has already submitted registrations and payment for all three of the same tournaments the following month, again on one Saturday, again with identical time conflicts. The coach did not intervene. "Last month he missed Dream Big Miami because he put it in his calendar as 2027," Villalobos said. "The month before that he forgot his belt." The Honda Civic, sources said, has made 47 trips to Veritas Jiu-Jitsu's strip mall parking lot, 12 trips to In-N-Out Burger in West Sacramento, and one trip to a wedding in Roseville. It has attended zero jiu-jitsu tournaments. A damp gi, balled in the backseat, remained in the footwell behind the driver's seat where it had been since Saturday afternoon. On Monday, Mendelson wore that gi to class. It smelled, multiple training partners confirmed, like the Honda. The Honda, witnesses said, smelled like a man who has never competed.