Gordon Ryan: “My Goal For BJJ Is To Get Athletes Paid & Make The Sport Mainstream”

Gordon Ryan made history over the previous weekend, having won his division and the superfight at the 2022 ADCC World Championships. And he’s made a lot of money along the way, too:

This ADCC, this last week, with sponsors, purses, merch, everything together, I’ve made upwards of 500k dollars this last weekend. This is total with everything included, that goes far beyond fight purses.

However, he thinks that BJJ in general has got to offer more to its athletes:

While great money, we can do more. ADCC is kind enough to GIVE the athletes money just because they love the sport and have been GIVING generously for decades.

It’s not ADCC’s job to pay more, they’ve done more than enough. We need bigger sponsors, more eyes, more everything.
This next ADCC I want winners making 50-100k to only compete, and I want to be making 1m+ to compete and a 2m dollar weekend.

This is just the beginning and I am happy that I’m leading the charge to true professionalism.

Actually, Gordon’s objective for the Gentle Art is that everyone gets paid more:

My goal for the sport is to get athletes paid and to make the sport mainstream.

Over the last few days I cannot go into food stores, restaurants, airports, gas stations, etc. without taking pictures or at least getting congratulated. I think it’s absolutely fair to say this is now a mainstream sport and that I am becoming a household name… But I’m the #1 athlete, this isn’t enough.

Our next goal is to get athletes paid as they should be, the athletes who deserve to paid, at least.

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