Opinion: BJJ will never be a mainstream spectator sport – and that’s OK
BJJ and submission grappling are certainly growing in popularity, but the sport will never capture mainstream appeal.
Last weekend saw the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) return to Las Vegas for the second installment of the groundbreaking, sport-changing event. Craig Jones, Seth Belisle, and the team behind CJI 2 put forth a herculean effort to make it the biggest show in BJJ history, turning up the volume on all promotional efforts, collecting the sport’s best and most popular grapplers, putting historically large paydays on the line, and adding high-end production elements that rival a UFC pay-per-view.
However, despite those efforts, CJI 2 made one thing devastatingly clear: BJJ is simply not a spectator sport suitable for mainstream appeal.
Beginning first with Metamoris in 2012, then the Eddie Bravo Invitational in 2014, BJJ and submission grappling have evolved into a professional sport, complete with rankings, title belts, and a media infrastructure (including this very website) to support the sport’s growing fanbase. The past few years have felt like the culmination of efforts to take BJJ to the next level as a spectator sport, with the ADCC renting out the T-Mobile Arena and CJI 1 and 2 both capturing the rapt collective attention of the global community.
During this time, fans and pundits alike have frequently found themselves bickering over the best ways to make BJJ mainstream: This ruleset is better than the other. This promotion is better than the other one. No, no, the real key is paying the athletes. No, that’s not it; the key is putting the most exciting athletes on the right stage. And, speaking of stages, this type of mat space is better than the other.
These arguments go on and on endlessly, but they miss the point entirely. Trying to make BJJ entertaining for a casual fan is futile because the sport itself, no matter the rules or athletes, isn’t a spectator sport.
The proof of that is in the pudding – and CJI 2 drove that home. Even though the event was held in the same city and on the same weekend as the IBJJF Masters Worlds and Jiu-Jitsu Con, with well over 10,000 BJJ practitioners in town, CJI 2 couldn’t sell enough tickets to break even. Presumably, the type of person who’s willing to travel to Las Vegas and pay a hefty tournament fee to compete in an IBJJF tournament is dedicated to BJJ and has money to spend. But even those folks (including pound-for-pound star Ffion Davies) chose the Vegas nightlife over the BJJ Super Bowl that was CJI 2.
BJJ has a number of factors fighting against its viability as a spectator sport. First, and perhaps most importantly, it’s practically impossible to appreciate unless you do it yourself. The sport’s fanbase is limited to those who also participate in it, and even then, the vast majority of practitioners can’t describe what’s going on at the highest levels.
It’s not only white or blue belts who are lost in the complexity of elite leg lock exchanges or berimbolo battles – even experienced grapplers often don’t understand what they’re watching. The UFC BJJ commentary team, for example, is made up of legitimate black belts with a wealth of grappling knowledge, but it’s obvious they don’t follow the sport of BJJ and can’t describe the intricacies of what’s unfolding before them.
To be clear, the complexity of BJJ is exactly what makes it so appealing to participate in. It’s a never-ending puzzle that offers a new problem to solve each day, but that’s exactly why a typical spectator can’t appreciate what world-class grapplers do in competition.
What’s more, because it’s so difficult to understand in the moment, BJJ is not a sport that lends itself to alcohol consumption (by the spectators – Craig Jones’ antics aside). The light shows, the late nights in Las Vegas, the concerts, the massive production value – all of this is significantly less appealing for a sober crowd. A quick scan of any live audience at a BJJ show gives immediate insight into the sport’s fanbase and their attitudes while watching: mostly men, sitting quietly. Without the blurring and inhibition-loosening effects of alcohol, those big production elements fall flat.
One common argument for making BJJ mainstream is that, with the right type of entertaining athlete and the right incentives to produce action, grappling will be exciting more often than not. There’s certainly some truth to this. Grapplers like Andrew Tackett and the Ruotolo brothers deliver high-octane thrills practically every time they compete, but is that whirlwind style enough to captivate someone who’s not already a fan of BJJ?
Sure, Tackett’s non-stop aggression, focus on the top game, and penchant for finding the rear-naked choke make his style easily digestible for a typical MMA fan. That’s undoubtedly why UFC BJJ has invested so much in him. But, if all a fan wants to see is aggressive, meat-and-potatoes grappling, what’s stopping them from just watching MMA instead? The UFC puts on an event nearly every week, and with the addition of strikes, MMA is likely to scratch the itch for violence, not grappling.
Finally, Craig Jones himself has already articulated why an excitement-first approach won’t push grappling into the mainstream. On a recent appearance on Demetrious Johnson’s “Mightycast,” he explained that, because BJJ athletes make most of their income from instructionals and seminars, it behooves them to develop a style that is effective first and entertaining second.
Former pound-for-pound great Gordon Ryan is a perfect example of this principle in action. In his prime, Ryan was undeniably the sport’s biggest star, but his approach to grappling, while brutally effective, was slow-paced, methodical, and control-based. Hobbyists could easily implement his techniques in their own academies and in local tournaments. As a result, Ryan amassed considerable wealth simply by selling dozens of detailed instructional videos.
Ryan’s ability to sell instructionals, teach seminars, and even offer private lessons at a shockingly low price appears to be more profitable than competing. The same can likely be said of current pound-for-pound great Ffion Davies, who currently teaches a full schedule of classes at Arma BJJ and recently chose to compete in the Masters division rather than invest her time and effort into the Adult division, where she’s likely to meet more comparable opposition.
Until athletes have a greater incentive to be exciting rather than effective, and until they can make more money competing rather than teaching, BJJ will never become a mainstream spectator sport. And, even if every match brings as much heart-pounding excitement as Kade Ruotolo versus Andrew Tackett, will it ever capture the attention of a broader fanbase? I think not – and that’s fine by me.
