Roberto Jimenez put on a fantastic performance at the IBJJF Pan Championship 2025 and he wasted no time at all in challenging the promotion for their lack of competitor pay. Jimenez is a veteran of the sport with several impressive titles on his resume, but this event was probably the best gi performance of his career so far. Jimenez competed in the heavyweight and absolute divisions, taking home silver medals in both with a pair of impressive runs. He went 3-1 in his weight class and 4-1 in the absolute, even beating the ultra-heavyweight champion on his way to the final in that bracket.
Shortly after the event had finished, Roberto Jimenez took to social media to complain about the lack of competitor pay at IBJJF events. He isn’t the first grappler to publicly raise issues about this and sadly, he probably won’t be the last either. This isn’t just a fleeting interest for Jimenez though, as raising the standard for pay in the sport is something that he’s talked about multiple times in the past. In fact, he was one of the first competitors to make the move over to the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational last year after receiving an invite to ADCC 2024.
Jimenez has also been open about the fact that he won’t compete for promotions who aren’t willing to pay him what he’s worth. The pay involved in Jiu-Jitsu has dramatically improved over the last few years and there are now several promotions that offer prizes of over $10,000, but some of the biggest in the sport are no longer keeping up. The amount of money available is still not really enough for competitors to live off unless they win multiple high-paying events every year, and many top competitors have been open about the fact that their main source of income comes from elsewhere.
Roberto Jimenez shared his statement on IBJJF competitor pay in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
