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:
Schedule 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.

BJJ black belt AJ Agazarm faced ex UFC fighter Karo Parisyan at Metamoris Underground last August. The match was extremely exciting and was a back and forth war between the two game athletes. After the 20 mins time limit, the match was declared a draw.

Agazarm still hasn’t been paid by Metamoris. He was also promised another Metamoris match. Agazarm took to Facebook to write an open letter to Metamoris founder Ralek Gracie:

Dear Ralek,
For quite sometime you have been using my image, my likeness, and the likenesses of others to promote your business and the brand of Metamoris. You claim to represent the values that Jiu Jitsu stands for, but you have been hiding behind empty promises.

It has been over 6 months since my bout against Karo Parisyan, and I still haven’t been paid. It’s not about the money (it wasn’t a lot) but instead it is about the principle. We put everything on the line to make it as exciting and entertaining as possible for the fans. I took the match on short notice to help save your show, as you would otherwise have been left without a main event. To this date my match is still behind your paywall and I have not yet seen a single dollar.

Since this match I have competed in organizations such as Polaris and Berkut, who paid my travel expenses, did an incredible job of promoting me as an athlete, but most importantly upheld the moral code of the artist and treated me and the community with respect by paying me on time and not compromising the cards of the viewers.

I think it is massively unjust that your brand equity continues to ascend by using the image of the athletes that you promised to pay (but do not) while organizations such as Polaris are struggling with brand recognition and event success.

The last Polaris card was one of the best the community has ever seen and not just for the quality of the match ups. They paid all their athletes (plus expenses) and did not make a profit. This is elevating the sport and allowing us athletes to make a living.

It’s been 6 months – you haven’t paid me, you promised me an additional bout on Metamoris that I have not seen, yet you still benefit from using our fight to promote your show.

Make this right. Stop double charging your customers and pay your athletes. The Instagram takeover will continue until you’ve done right.

On April 2nd I will face Ben Askren in a sub-only match in the UK for @polaris_professional. I am looking forward to this match for a number of reasons, but mainly because I am getting the opportunity to showcase my skills against a very tough opponent in a clash of styles.