Vagner Rocha previously said BJJ is a ‘Baby’ sport, opportunities to earn few and far in between.
Rocha detailed a scary prospect:
“I mean, when I started jiu-jitsu, there wasn’t even any of these opportunities. It’s very cool. It’s evolved a lot. But even ADCC, the biggest tournament in the world, the guy who wins, the weight class, makes $10,000. How’s that change in your life?”
“BJJ Fanatics is one of the better avenues that people make a living off of, you know. They they do a great job, but the market’s flooded. If you’re not ‘the guy’, if you’re not that name you’re a credible source – you’ve got to be someone who’s got authority. If you’re just a regular guy that’s a good black belt that has won some things and you make a bjj fanatics dvd, the chances of you making a living off of that is very small.”
B Team’s Craig Jones recently shared a few ways to make a lot of money from BJJ. In a B team video he explains:
“Running a gym is horrible, dealing with new people is fu*king horrible. Sometimes it might be better to take a pay cut and just teach classes. Less stress involved, but again – you will never make any real money if you’re doing that. If you’re a nobody purple belt, you might make $50 a private. And you might have to give 25% back to the gym owner to pay overheads.” Jones said.
Jones also said that people can make money through teaching seminars. In this case, Jones explained that the gym gave him a small percentage of the revenues at first. But, as time went by, charged more percentage for his payment.
Finally, another huge income can be earned by competing within for profit events.
“FloGrappling, Fight Pass, these types of shows… They profit by selling new subscribers. So, is your match gonna sell them any new subscribers? That sort of understanding is what dictates how much money you deserve to be paid. That might mean that you deserve to be paid $0. If you bring no value to the show, if you bring no new subscribers to the show, and no people are tuning in to watch you, then you really don’t deserve to be paid. It’s your ability to sell the show.” Jones said.
Jones added that the person’s value is the most important. If a person can sell the show and bring in a lot of people, they could earn as much as $150,000.
“You can get as low as 1000 to 1500 dollars. You could get as high as $150,000. So there’s a huge window there. And again, no matter how many gold medals you have, that doesn’t mean you’re going to fall on this end of the spectrum.” Jones added.
He added that he had competed for free in Chael Sonnen’s Submission Underground, just for a chance to promote himself.
“And that’s when I was coming up trying to make a name for myself. Oftentimes I would compete for free on shows like Submission Underground because I would see as an opportunity to expose myself to a new audience. And then I’d use that exposure to sell things like seminars and instructional to people. So it’s like a it’s a give and take.”
