Whether you love him or hate him, IBJJF World Champion and multiple-time ADCC medalist Keenan Cornelius has always had some strong opinions on the sport and has never shied away from sharing them with the public. In the most recent episode of the Matburn podcast uploaded to his official YouTube channel, he sat down with co-host and fellow elite black belt competitor Josh Hinger to discuss a myriad of topics, including the apparent ‘death’ of the IBJJF World championships:
“They are no longer the premier event. No one cares about IBJJF worlds anymore… Bro, that shit’s dead. Mark my words.”
Keenan Cornelius was quick to clarify that he was being a little hyperbolic by declaring the IBJJF world championships as dead, because the event will still serve plenty of purpose for hobbyist competitors. It seems as though his comments were aimed more specifically toward the elite competitors and the rising number of them that choose to avoid competing in the IBJJF world championships altogether:
“It serves a purpose for hobbyists now, I think… I know most of the competitions my students have done this year are just a million random competitions that people start, that are small that are not IBJJFs… Do they wield the public viewership power that they used to? I think not.”
“I think the IBJJF will always exist and always be a profitable business for them, but I don’t think they will have as much cultural impact as they had from 2008 to 2017, 2018… I think we’re gonna see a divergence of the gi and no-gi, heavily. And I think the media companies will pick a side… It’s a different culture now. There’s a gi culture and there’s a no-gi culture.”
To be fair, Cornelius isn’t really wrong here. There’s certainly already a strong split between the gi and no-gi culture of Jiu-Jitsu, and the ADCC world championships will always be the premier no gi competition regardless of whether the IBJJF has modernized their ruleset. See below for the entire episode of the Matburn podcast that the above excerpt is taken from:
