Polaris have just announced that they will be staging their first ever gi grand prix for their next event on September 7th, 2024. The promotion have been increasing their focus on tournaments in recent years, hosting men’s grand prix events and a women’s grand prix event too. Each of these events produced some great highlights and memorable moments, and Polaris decided to take things a step further by putting together a fantastic absolute grand prix late in 2023. They’ve been hosting these tournaments on a pretty regular basis, while still sticking true to their roots and hosting other events with superfights as the main attraction instead.
That’s how the next Polaris event will function in fact, as the promotion has booked a series of superfights leading up to a wild main event match between Yoel Romero and Owen Livesey. Although there’s still some time before Polaris 28 takes place, it looks as though promotion has already got to work planning out their next event after that. The revelation that they will be staging a gi grand prix is going to be a welcome one to many fans, especially because it will take place towards the end of the year when there are no major IBJJF events to compete with.
The gi grand prix at Polaris 29 will feature 8 elite grapplers competing for a grand prize of $25,000, which is one of the biggest prizes ever given for a gi tournament. The Crown only awarded $15,000 per division and BJJ Stars stages gi tournaments with a prize of R$100,000, but the exchange rate puts this at under $20,000. This means that Polaris 29 will represent an incredible opportunity for gi competitors to earn more than many of them ever have before in a single night. In fact the only comparative prize can be found in the IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix, which awards $40,000 to the winner but only takes place on rare occasions.
Polaris announced the news that they were going to put together a gi grand prix for Polaris 29 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
