UFC executive and MMA veteran Claudia Gadelha has recently decided to speak out about the state if competitor pay in Jiu-Jitsu. Although she’s known for her MMA career; she’s also a 4th degree BJJ black belt and won the IBJJF No Gi World Championship at brown belt so the sport is very important to her. She used her phenomenal grappling to great effect in the cage and she became one of the top strawweight fighters in the world, even challenging for a UFC title before retiring from the sport in 2020. She finished her career with an impressive 18-5 professional record that included 7 submission finishes, and wins over some of the best in her weight class.
Claudia Gadelha knows better than anyone how tough it is to make a living in combat sports and nowhere is that more difficult than in Jiu-Jitsu. She recently shared her thoughts on why competitor pay is so low in the sport:
“I’m going to say something right now that I know will piss a lot of people off, but it needs to be said. The number one reason why Jiu-Jitsu is still an amateur sport, the number one reason why jiu-jitsu isn’t a professional sport yet, is because of the athletes. You accept to be sold for free! You accept to go in there and put (on) the best performances of your life for a medal.”
Gadelha pre-empted one of the most common counterpoints, which is that athletes make most of money off other revenue streams outside of competition. Although that’s only made possible by success in competition first, Gadelha believes that it doesn’t require them to do it for free:
”You gained the recognition to do business, right? You gain the recognition of opening a gym, to charge for seminars, and sell DVDs. Which you can do the same thing when you build a career inside a platform that helps you to be the product that you deserve to be and make money during your career. Then go do business afterwards. When you guys understand that Jiu-Jitsu will change forever. But if you don’t, it’s never going to change.”
Shortly after her initial social media post, Roberto Jimenez stepped up and called out the IBJJF for low competitor pay. Many other top competitors joined him in calling for better conditions and it seems as though Gadelha might have noticed this, and she hammered her initial point home:
“I see some Jiu-Jitsu competitors now finally voicing that they should be getting paid. If you work as a professional, you should be getting paid. Jiu-Jitsu tournaments where you pay to compete is for amateurs. If you are a black belt professional world champion-calibre, world-class athlete, and you’re high-performing in everything you do; the way you eat, sleep, behave, and you are not getting paid? You are being used, okay? How long more it’s gonna take for you guys to understand that? Jiu-Jitsu tournaments where you don’t get paid is for amateurs, okay? And you guys created the monster, you guys keep going out there and paying to compete.”
Claudia Gadelha shared her thoughts on competitor pay in Jiu-Jitsu in a series of recent posts to their official Instagram account:
