Ben Kovacs, General Manager of FloGrappling, recently offered his perspective on the UFC’s entry into Brazilian jiu-jitsu, providing insights about UFC’s expansion into BJJ in an interesting interview.
Speaking about the UFC’s foray into jiu-jitsu Kovacs expressed concerns about market monopolization.
“I think it’s great that the UFC is entering jiu-jitsu. First of all, anytime they do something, it brings a lot more eyeballs on it. It brings attention. It makes everybody else raise their game,”
he said. However he drew parallels to the music industry’s consolidation noting,
“We don’t want jiu-jitsu to become the way of like live nation, right? And I think that UFC kind of has that opportunity if we’re not careful where it might seem good at the beginning, but you know, we don’t want this sport to necessarily become a monopoly.”
Regarding the UFC’s inaugural grappling show Kovacs offered mixed reviews. While praising the production value and distribution he criticized the athlete selection and coaching choices.
“I don’t think they were able to get the coaches that they wanted for the show,”
he explained.
“I didn’t find those two personalities compelling like a Gordon versus Craig Jones or, you know, Nicky Rodriguez versus Gordon or something like that would have been.”
The FloGrappling executive was particularly critical of positioning Mikey Musumeci as the face of UFC BJJ.
“Mikey is almost like the opposite of an MMA fans dream, right? He comes out, he scoots on his butt across the mat, he sticks one leg up in the air,”
Kovacs observed.
“It’s certainly the opposite sort from an MMA stylistic standpoint of what you would expect if you’re trying to convert that traditional UFC base over.”
Kovacs challenged the UFC’s marketing approach and financial claims. When the UFC announced investing $10-12 million in jiu-jitsu he pointed out that
“Flo Grappling’s been spending that kind of money, you know, many millions of dollars for the last 12 years building the sport of jiu-jitsu.”
He characterized the UFC’s strategy as
“running a mind campaign” where “they’re just telling people over and over and over again like we are the place for jiu-jitsu now.”
The discussion highlighted a fundamental difference in business philosophy. While the UFC pursues exclusive contracts Flo Grappling maintains a more open approach.
“There’s no athletes that are exclusive to Flo Grappling,”
Kovacs explained.
“FloGrappling allows you, if you sign with FloGrappling, to compete on any other promotion, whether it’s one or UFC or CJI or ADCC, as long as you come back to Flo for your next competition.”
Kovacs emphasized that the competitive landscape shouldn’t be viewed as a winner-take-all scenario.
“I don’t think the narrative is CJI versus UFC. I think it’s CJI, ADCC, IBJJF, Flo Grappling, many many others,”
he stated, advocating for collaboration rather than isolation in growing the sport.
These comments come as Kovacs, who took over as Flo Grappling’s general manager just 60 days prior to his public statements, navigates the company through a period of significant change. The 19-year jiu-jitsu practitioner who founded the nonprofit Guardian organization providing free training to underprivileged children brings both business experience from Twitter and deep community connections to his new role.
It’s interesting to hear Kovacs provide this kind of insight following the viral story from former UFC exec who basically detailed them wanting to gut Flograppling.
“Me and Stephen Tecci wanted to go after FloGrappling in the worst way. We wanted just to smash them and we needed to get the crown jewel.”
Flograppling is in an unenviable position with their key assets negotiating and or promoting UFC currently. For years Flograppling struggled to get to a place where they can produce IBJJF related content in a specator friendly way. While UFC BJJ is far from impressive – with the reality series cutting matches down and sketchy editing- Flograppling’s reputation in the community is pretty far down the drain.
It reamins to be seen what will be of the giant considering FloSports, has raised a Series D funding round led by India’s Dream Sports—marking a stark departure from its earlier, more traditional and U.S.-based investors like Warner Bros. Discovery and WWE-affiliated Fertitta Capital. While FloSports touts ‘record-breaking engagement and profitability’, the timing and direction of this investment raise eyebrows. Dream Sports, best known for fantasy sports and e-commerce in India, may not have the media pedigree or market overlap to truly “revolutionize” sports streaming in the U.S. Instead, this partnership suggests FloSports is either pivoting toward international markets or simply chasing capital from less scrutinizing sources. Despite the upbeat language about growth and innovation, this deal could be read as a signal that traditional investors are pulling back, and FloSports is leaning on hype and overseas alliances to maintain momentum.
