Kron Gracie has recently spoken out about competitors who use the title of ‘world champion’ without winning the biggest BJJ event in the world at the highest level. It’s a byproduct of the sport separating competitors into a number of different divisions, including both belt level and age bracket. This means that there’s dozens of different competitors winning an IBJJF World Championship every year, even if they didn’t win it at the adult black belt level. Then outside of that event, the waters are muddied even further by having both the IBJJF Master World Championship and the IBJJF No Gi World Championship as well.
While these are both tough events that feature some very talented grapplers, Kron Gracie believes that someone is not a ‘world champion’ just because they win one of them. Masters events are reserved for competitors over the age of 30 only and while there are some elite black belts who do compete there every year, it also attracts more casual competitors from all around the world too. Then when it comes to No Gi Worlds, that tournament does actually have an adult black belt division available and it regularly features many of the best competitors in the world on the podium.
The difference between IBJJF gi and no gi worlds is that there’s some stiff competition when it comes to being the most prestigious event in no gi. The majority of people would agree that honour belongs to ADCC instead, which is actually several years older than no gi worlds. The way it’s structured has also created an incredible proving ground, as most new competitors making their debut there will have to fight their way through incredibly tough ADCC Trials events in order to do so. The IBJJF does employ a points-based system to qualify there, but that only requires winning multiple smaller Opens around the world rather than one stacked bracket on a single weekend.
Kron Gracie shares his thoughts on people using the title of ‘world champion’ in a recent story posted to his official Instagram account:
