NAGA are one of the most popular BJJ tournament organizers in the world and they’ve just altered their pay structure to offer equal amounts in both male and female absolute divisions. It’s a big step forward by the promotion and it’s a welcome change, one that many would consider to be overdue. Like many other sports BJJ was originally almost exclusively practiced by men, but a number of pioneers paved the way for women in the sport decades ago. Women didn’t have any real avenues to compete originally and major tournaments had no female divisions, with ADCC only introducing women’s divisions in 2005.
Obviously the sport has come a long way since then, with most tournaments having women’s divisions and most fight cards featuring women’s matches now. While women have a much stronger presence in the sport than they did before, the problem now is that many promotions do not offer equal pay. ADCC as an example still don’t have the same number of weight classes and it was only in 2024 that they finally offered the same prize money for champions regardless of gender. Although NAGA is not on the same level as ADCC in terms of prestige, it holds an important place in the sport with events all around the world regularly.
Although competitors pay to compete at NAGA events, they offer prize money for their expert absolute divisions and it’s a great opportunity for up and coming grapplers to support themselves. Given that both male and female competitors have to go through that exact same process early in their careers, it’s great that they now have the same earning potential. From now on NAGA are offering an equal amount of pay for both male and female absolute divisions, with bracket-size being the only thing that affects the prize money. The prize money on offer for all NAGA expert absolute divisions is now as follows:
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- 4-7 competitors = $250
- 8-11 competitors = $500
- 12-15 competitors = $750
- 16+ competitors = $1,000
NAGA announced the new equal pay structure for the male and female absolute divisions in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
