The 1st place athlete in the Black Belt Adult Male and Female division at the end of ranking season 2015/16 will receive an award of $10,000 (USD)*
Many professional BJJ players welcomed the news but one in particular was very critical.
It is absurd for the leader of the female ranking to make as much as the leader of the male ranking. No offense to women, but the level of men’s bjj is infinitely better, and much more disputed. To this fact there is no debate. Nice little initiative by the ibjjf, but they should slice this “cake” better. Using a legal term, “equity”; treat the equals equally, and those not equal unequally.”
“You train just like the men do or sometimes even more. You are victim of prejudice when you choose a career said to be for men. You give up the body and the life of a regular women to live your dream. You get paid less your entire life. Then when some kind of equality comes along, you have to deal with this kind of mentality. I’m in a new moment in my career, but I will try to conciliate both [MMA and BJJ] and compete for that I fought so hard to see happen. Congratulations to the IBJJF”
Vc treina igual, ou as vezes até mais que os homens, vc sofre preconceitos, vc escolhe uma profissão que é “dita”…
Posted by Gabi Garcia on Friday, July 24, 2015
Former World champion, Hillary Williams also made a statement on her Facebook on why men and women should be paid equally:
“Most of the current female black belt champions have been grappling every bit as long as the men. Bia Mesquita has 16+ years of training under her belt. We pay the same fees for training, competing, traveling, and as shown in this thread, still receive less than men. If you’re not using that logic to justify less for men’s super light weight divisions as well as the super heavies (the light-middle heavy are the most stacked divisions), then it shouldn’t be applied to the women.”
