Gordon Ryan recently emphasized the need for the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) to significantly raise its prize money – in order to spur the development of the sport.
During his appearance on The Miguel Benitez podcast “Tapping In”, Ryan pointed out that despite ADCC’s status as the most prestigious no-gi BJJ event, its financial rewards lag far behind other professional sports.
Namely, he proposed a substantial increase in the winner’s purse – to $250,000 or more for each division.
Ryan believes that this would draw elite athletes and generate widespread interest in grappling:
My biggest thing to build ADCC is doing an amazing job, obviously.
But you have to increase the prize money, in my opinion.I think that you have to increase the prize money so drastically that it’s, like, by far the highest payment in grappling events, period.
Currently, ADCC champions receive a modest $10,000 for winning their weight class, a sum Ryan considers trivial in the broader context.
He argues that such amounts are insufficient to significantly impact the sport’s growth or attract top-tier talent.
Elevated payouts, Ryan believes, would make both competing and winning in the ADCC transformative for even the sport’s leading athletes.
You may listen to the full podcast on the following link.
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