IBJJF out of step in new Pro BJJ landscape

Mahamed Aly was the proud winner of the 2^nd World Series of Grappling event last weekend and netted himself $20k for his troubles. He put on an impressive performance and even took out the formidable Keenan Cornelius on his way to the gold.

After the tournament Aly posted the following message on his Instagram which posed the following question: “Is it better to win worlds or a tournament that pays 20k?”

Judging by my Instagram feed the post was very well received by the active professional grappling community with many others echoing his statements. It seems that Aly’s comments struck a bit of a nerve and it has left many people asking very honest questions about the future of the professional sport.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

🇺🇸 Somebody asked me last night: “Is it better to win worlds or a tournament that pays 20k?” That question still stuck on my head. I know IBJJF worlds is the most important thing I did on my career. I don’t regret anything. But EVERY world champion gets frustrated after they win worlds. You win today and tomorrow you still have to pay your bills in order to keep your dream alive. Fighting BJJ is still a hobby(and that’s sad). The really job is to teach. You teach seminars, classes, or online… That means that the athlete can’t be just an athlete. We still struggling a lot. And most people won’t even talk about it 😔 I think every world champion and medalists should talk about this. The amount of work that we put together is unreal… you do that for 10 years then you realize that it doesn’t guarantee you anything in life(you have to do other stuff) not even a symbolic amount of money at least to pay for your trip, diet or the beers for celebration 😂. That put world champions(the ones who want to be just athletes) in a situation that they’re forced to fight MMA or these submission only tournaments. WE NEVER GONNA WIN THIS KIND OF TOURNAMENTS. Simply because we don’t train under these rule sets. We only have 24 hours a day and we are trying to win worlds. In result: we give opportunity to people who win shit to beat us in this kind of tournaments. Simply because we’re not used to these rule sets and we struggling for money… That’s why I always support the IBJJF pros and I think everybody should do the same. I think every IBJJF grand slam(Europeans, pan ams, Brazilian nationals and worlds) should be paying the athletes too… Im just sharing my thoughts with you guys. Im still trying to figure this thing(life) out… Thank you very much !!! THANKS @worldseriesofgrappling (and the other ones that are working to change the game) FOR THE AWESOME OPPORTUNITY… @gamblersjiujitsuclub #mikeciprianni #bjjproblems #bjj #facts 📸 by: @kosinskibjj 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 PORTUGUES NOS COMENTÁRIOS.

A post shared by Mahamed Aly (@alybjj) on Oct 8, 2018 at 9:50am PDT

Potential demise of IBJJF

This made me think about where the sport was heading and if might soon get to the stage where the top professionals in the Gi stop entering the Worlds, Pans, Europeans, and Brazilian nationals in order to focus on the grappling competitions that offer cash prizes.

If this did become the norm it would be a massive shame in my opinion. The Worlds is generally accepted as the pinnacle of the sport and it is the one place we get to see the best vs the best at the height of their ability. It is hard to imagine a World Championships without Buchecha, Leandro Lo, and Bruno Malfacine. Howevert this  scenario is becoming more likely every day.

The IBJJF are not known as an organization that responds quickly to change. However if they do not review their current prize structures they run the risk of becoming less relevant.

The IBBJF currently reward the top ranked fighters at the end of each year. Last year Erberth Santos won the $15K cash prize but did so by entering approximately 10 IBJJF events that were hosted in several different countries. While it is a nice prize to win it does not take into account the amount of travelling and expense that is incurred by the athlete in order to win the prize. All added up it is likely that Erberth (and his sponsors) spent the the guts of $15K on his way to the 1^st place prize.

Solution

Including the female and absolute divisions there are currently 17 world champion brackets at black belt every year. There is a massive discrepancy across the divisions in terms of number and quality of entrants so would be hard to provide a standard cash prize for each medalist.

Instead why not have absolute divisions at +100kg and -77kg and reward the top 3 finishers in each division? This makes for a total of 12 cash prizes which seems very reasonable. Surely the IBJJF could budget approximately $200k to be distributed among this medalists.

Rewarding the top athletes that they depend on to promote their product seems like common sense from a business point of view. In light of the changing professional landscape this decision appears to be a no brainer. They are already making money off these athletes by selling their live events to content providers such as Flograppling. Instead of the athletes it should be the IBJJF asking themselves: Is it better to win worlds or a tournament that pays $20k?

Featured photo by: @kosinskibjj