The professional grappling promotion, Metamoris, and most notably its founder Ralek Gracie has been under fire for the past few months for various reasons.

The main ones are:

-Scheduling events on the same weekend as EBI and the same day as Copa Podio
-Disrespecting Female Competitors
-Untrustworthy Online Site and Automatic Renewals
-Not paying Metamoris Challenger/Underground Competitors, and staff.

Despite all the backlash, Metamirs has just announced a mega event for July 17th at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles! METAMORIS 7: GRACIE VS BUCHECHA 2 in hopes to be able to repay its debts and keep the company affloat.

Full Card:

ROGER GRACIE vs. MARCUS ALMEIDA “BUCHECHA”
GABRIEL GONZAGA vs. SATOSHI ISHI (Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo).
DILON DANNIS vs. GILBERT “DURINHO” BURNS
RALEK GRACIE vs. TIM SPRIGGS
YURI SIMOES vs. MATHEUS DINIZ
SECRET MATCH.

Metamoris still owes Metamoris Challenger/Underground Competitors, and staff including AJ Agazarm owed 2,000$ and Marcel Goncalves from Florida. Goncalves won the Metamoris Challengers last November and was promised by Ralek Gracie to be paid the prize money of 10,000$ + travel expenses. There are many more athletes that have been waiting since last year to be paid.

Garry Tonon, who has competed in two Meatmoris in the past made a hilarious stament on his Facebook, not directly targeting Metamoris but it is clear what he meant. He called the activities a ‘Ponzi Scheme’

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.

Ponzi schemes occasionally begin as legitimate businesses, until the business fails to achieve the returns expected. The business becomes a Ponzi scheme if it then continues under fraudulent terms. Whatever the initial situation, the perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to sustain the scheme.

Tonon’s Facebook post:

Last year word got out that the people behind Metamoris were trying to have the monopoly of the PPV grappling events by asking grappling athletes to sign exclusive contracts. The athletes would only be allowed to compete in Metamoris but not with rival invitational such as Polaris, Copa Podio, or EBI. The exception would be for IBJJF and ADCC events.

Eddie Bravo Invitational (EBI) and Polaris Pro Invitational are two other major invite only elite tournaments, and they have (according to sources close to their events) had their athletes approached by Metamoris in efforts to sign them to exclusive contracts. Garry Tonon was asked to sign an exclusive contract with Metamoris, which he refused.

Tonon later released the following statement blowing the whistle on Metamoris’ immoral practices: