Medals and trophies are the icing on the cake for competitors. It is always nice to receive a good looking medal as a memento of the hard training, and battles that you had to endure to achieve your goal: winning a grappling tournament. Of course, cash prizes are also rewarding but that is a different story.
Some BJJ/grappling organizations have put extra effort in producing original medals, trophies or prizes.
Here are some of the best ones:
Grapplers Quest
About: Grapplers Quest is an organization mainly concerned with the promotion of submission wrestling, Grappling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournaments. Founded in 1998 by Brian Cimins, Grapplers Quest currently hosts competitions of various division, age, and weight classes.
Grapplers Quest has been host to many high-level competitors in mixed martial arts, such as Matt Hughes, Frankie Edgar, Ben Henderson, Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez, Joe Stevenson, BJ Penn, Brandon Vera, and many others. In 2013, thet held their first event on the European continent: Grapplers Quest Europe which was held in Amsterdam.
Grapplers quest belts (NAGA on the right)
Prizes: They offer Grapplers Quest leather Championship Belts as well as the classic large Gold, Silver, & Bronze Medals.
NAGA
About: The North American Grappling Association (NAGA) is an organization started in 1995 that holds Submission Grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments throughout North America and Europe. NAGA is the largest submission grappling association in the world with over 175,000 participants world-wide, including some of the top submission grapplers and MMA fighters in the world. NAGA grappling tournaments consist of gi and no-gi divisions. No-Gi competitors compete under rules drafted by NAGA. Gi competitors compete under standardized Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu rules.
Prizes: Samurai sword, championship leather belts, and custom medals
Naga champion wins a samurai sword
The Naga championship belt
Many competitors have requested the ability to purchase a medal so they can: have one in addition to a sword, to display in another location, to present to an instructor, etc. NAGA now offers this option.
World Pro Jiu-Jitsu Campionship
About: The WPJJC Supported personally by his Highness the Supreme Prince and Commander In Chief of the United Arab Emirates National Army, H. H. Sheik Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The inaugural 2009 tournament had the prize purse of US$111,000. This amount was increased further to US$150,000 in 2010 and is planned to increase to US$272,000 (AED 1,000,000) in 2011, which are the largest money prizes in history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments.
Prizes: Apart from massive cash prizes and having travel packages, the black belt champions win the nicest looking championship belts in the Jiu-Jitsu/ grappling world!
Now, when you compare that to what Jiu-Jitsu’s biggest and most prestigious federation, the IBJJF, offers it’s champions: a simple and bland looking medal (no cash prizes apart from a once a year BJJ league with “Just” 5,000 dollars for the black belt winner), it makes you wonder…
IBJJF worlds gold medals
There are too many smaller tournaments for us to mention all but check out what winners of this wrestling competition in the US get: these Maximus gladiator helmets! Beats getting a medal.
And of course the Kleos Grappling tournament were winners receive this epic war hammer:
