There’s been a lot of talk about ADCC overtaking IBJJF competitions in terms of prestige. Just in the last couple of weeks, Gordon Ryan and B Team separately discussed how even ADCC trials are more influential than winning an IBJJF World title.
BJJ landscape is changing, with ADCC’s decision to join UFC’s streaming service while IBJJF worlds remain televised on Flograppling.
IBJJF is a for profit organization that’s been increasingly greedy over the years. The World championships were once the pinnacle of a jiu-jitsu journey but are nothing but a side note nowadays. This is in part due to the fact that there are so many divisions and variations that becoming a World champion lost some of it’s gravity.
ADCC organizer published the following on his social media:
“So we almost finalized our first ADCC US open (90% of the 2023 opens are set), my team speaks to a venue and they say no problem and give us multiple dates and all good. 2 days later the venue tone changes dramatically and miraculously they are fully booked for months after giving us an open schedule. The tone changed right when they knew it was for ADCC, my team is very confident another grappling org blocked us there since they use that venue consistently.”
“I was being nice before but if you want to play dirty with me, no problem, I will beat you by delivering a far superior product. ADCC US opens will have a registration fee and that’s it. No team fees, no belt ranking fees etc. Our opens will be DOUBLE elimination. You accidentally go for a banned technique? Our refs won’t DQ you instantly, they will warn you. If you talk to our refs and judges you won’t get penalized or DQed. If you win your match and celebrate like crazy, I’ll tell you congratulations and I love your passion.”
“So challenge accepted, all this does is light fire in me and motivate me. We will see who comes out on top. Good luck.”
Even though ADCC promoter didn’t name the organization, it’s very apparent from the last paragraph considering IBJJF penalizes talking to refs and judges and also disqualifies quite a number of competitors.
ADCC winner Gordon Ryan shared words of support for ADCC saying:
“When an organization goes out of its way to fuck with my friends, I am now involved. When you see me torching an organization at every turn, don’t wonder why”
Ryan is currently scheduled to face Felipe Pena in their pending rematch.
IBJJF Nogi World championships were won by members of Fight sports who allegedly fled the podium in order to evade the USADA testers. Fight sports refutes this account of what transpired.
