When Andrew Tackett emerged at Craig Jones Invitational 1, trading war with Kade Ruotolo in what many considered the match of the tournament, the jiu-jitsu world took notice. But behind that performance was a financial reality that would eventually push him, and many others, toward the UFC.
Speaking on the Mighty Cast, Tackett was open about what the jiu-jitsu landscape looked like after that breakthrough at CGI. Offers came in at around five thousand to show and five thousand to win, with no backend attached.
“A couple organizations were offering me but such low pay that everything was terrible,” he said.
When UFC BJJ came calling with a reality show, a pathway to a title match, access to the Performance Institute, and consistent medical support, the contrast was clear.
“First season, that is a really good move,” Tackett said. “So I just went full send.”
The money conversation runs deeper than his own contract decision, though. When host Demetrious Johnson raised the financial pull of MMA, Tackett was direct.
Johnson stated, “Well, I think you guys realize there’s a lot of money in this.”
“It’s true,” Tackett admitted. “That is very true.”
The problem, as he sees it, is structural. Organizations outside the UFC cannot sustain competitive payouts over time. Even Craig Jones, who built CGI into one of the most talked-about events in grappling, acknowledged to Tackett that the model was not viable long-term.
“It’s not profitable. It’s not sustainable,” Tackett relayed, repeating Jones’s own words.
The result is a cycle that has proven difficult to break. Athletes who generate excitement gravitate toward whichever organization can pay them reliably, and right now that organization is the UFC. Meanwhile, top free agents in jiu-jitsu either compete infrequently or find reasons to avoid the matches that would showcase them most.
Tackett feels the talent drain personally. He competes in the welterweight division of UFC BJJ largely without the opponents he most wants to face, because the athletes he calls out keep declining or going quiet.
“You guys are wasting your talent. You’re wasting my talents. I’m not competing against you,” he said.
Until the financial infrastructure of competitive jiu-jitsu catches up to what mixed martial arts can offer, the movement of top grapplers toward the cage is unlikely to reverse. In Tackett’s view, MMA offers not just greater competition, but a paycheck to match.
