Claudio Calasans won in 2006 and never got paid
The ADCC absolute and IBJJF world champion recalls when only one tournament a year paid prize money, and says grappling purses can still get better
In 2006, Claudio Calasans’ first year as a black belt, there was only one tournament on the calendar that paid prize money. He entered, won it, and never got paid. The IBJJF world champion and ADCC absolute champion told the story in an interview with VF Comunica on YouTube, released on September 6, 2022, talking about how professionalism has changed life for competitors.
“I started competing as a black belt in 2006. In my first year at black belt, there was only one tournament paying money all year,” Calasans recalled. The prize back then was R$5,000 (Brazilian reais). “I won it. I still haven’t received that money to this day.”
From one paying event to a full calendar
For Calasans, the biggest difference between his generation and today’s is planning. Athletes used to depend on one shot a year. Now they can build a whole season around prize money, and not only at the big shows. He pointed to weekend tournaments in Brazil paying a thousand reais for the absolute.
“Today, guys can plan to compete every month,” he said. “The level of professionalism is so much higher now. Completely different.”
That shift reached him too. Calasans said he was invited to a $100,000 absolute tournament, and for someone who never got paid in 2006, the answer was easy. “If you competed in 2006 and never got paid, and now you get the chance to fight in a $100,000 event, it’s practically impossible to say no.”
A message about ADCC
Even optimistic about the sport’s growth, Calasans had a warning for the new generation. “The young guys are reaping the rewards, but they can’t be satisfied with the prize money either,” he said.
His example was the biggest grappling event in the world. According to Calasans, ADCC paid, if he remembered correctly, $10,000 to each division champion, the same amount since the first edition. “It can get better. It’s really good, but it can improve.”
He said that in September 2022. Since then, things have moved: ADCC announced a prize increase and doubled the men’s division champion purse to $20,000, amid competition from the Craig Jones Invitational.
Calasans’ best year was 2015, when he won the IBJJF World Championship at middleweight in May and ADCC absolute gold in August, in São Paulo. Watch the full interview below, released on September 6, 2022, on VF Comunica’s YouTube channel (in Portuguese).
Do you think prize money in Jiu-Jitsu and grappling is where athletes deserve it to be? Let us know in the comments.
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