Grapplers Graveyard

Why BJJ Will Become the Biggest Martial Art

why bjj will be the biggest martial art

In This Article

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit

We will flat out say it now, we believe that Brazilian jiu-jitsu will be the biggest martial art in the world and will have 10s of million sof people training by the end of the decade. Not only is the martial art growing extremely fast in the United States but it truly has a world wide presence. With the rise of UFC and One Fight Championship, more and more people are getting enthralled with the idea of being a warrior. In this article, we take a look at why BJJ will become the biggest martial art in the world.

Why BJJ May Become the Biggest Martial Art

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the fastest growing martial art in the world right now. It has the recipe to be something very big at the rate it is going. Sure, we may be a little bias about that prediction since we are building a business in the space but we like to think we are objective thinkers when it comes to spotting rising trends.

All of this stems off the rising popularity of MMA and the UFC. None of this happens without it in our opinion. MMA is on its way to being the biggest sport in the world but it has one big issue, not many people like to get hit in the face.

So what is the alternative option for people to scratch the itch to learn how to fight without getting punched, Brazilian jiu-jitsu. With the access to BJJ gyms growing as more people get promoted to black belt, it leaves more room for new incumbents to enter the market. 

Lets examine whats happening on the ground a little bit more in detail.

Boots on the Ground: What is Happening?

SO, if you havent already picked this up yet, we train Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and compete regularly. When we first started out on our journey, we started to notice all the people giving the martial art a go and started to ask why they started in the first place. The answers all followed a similar tone.

People train Brazilian jiu jitsu for the following reasons:

  • They want to find a new and fun way to workout
  • They want to lose weight and get cut
  • They want to feel like they can protect themselves if they needed to fight

Many people get hooked to Brazilain jiu-jitsu. It has the tendencies of a cult, people sear up and down that this martial art “saved their life”. In some cases, that is definitely true, but in others it just got people more fit, more disciplined, and taught them how to fight and protect themselves if a situation were to arise. All wonderful things.

People who love to train brazilian jiu-jitsu also fall in love with all the learning that comes along with becoming a practitioner. The intelligence of the community about grappling blows our mind and only makes the experience of watching UFC fights more exciting! 

We used to work for an investment firm so we started to pick up on the signs written on the wall, Brazilian jiu jitsu is bound to have a massive decade full of growth. We are excited to be right on the ground floor of this trend and outside influences only support what we think is in store for the coming decade.

Official UFC Partner
Stake | Leading Social Casino

Stake.us social casino has been tailor-made to provide the ultimate social, safe, and free gaming experience. With a wide variety of over 200 industry favorite games by the most reputable providers, you won’t find better action anywhere else.

Click Here
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

Gracie Influence

This last week, Rener Gracie came out with a new book called ‘The 32 Principles: Harnessing the Power of jiu-Jitsu to Succeed in Business, Relationship, and Life‘, so far the read has been awesome but what is more important is the book tour he is going on.

Rener has been all over my social media feed talking about the power that BJJ has in changing our lives for the better. He he gives a very convincing argument on these short clips but really outlines the details in the book. Rener is the brains behind Gracie University and in his own right has been massively success in life and business. Right now he has 408,000 followers on Instagram and is one of the biggest influences for the martial art to reach its fullest potential.

We firmly believe that jiu-jitsu is a martial art that anyone can do. It is an art made for a smaller person to have control over a larger untrained person. Each day we are seeing new things in the industry and love seeing the art touch more peoples lives.

ADCC

ADCC, or Abu Dhabi Combat Club, is the largest no-gi grappling organization in the world and has been taking majority of the share for the competition scene over the past couple of years. While there will still be room for the GI competitions to be massive, ADCC has morphed into the “Superbowl” in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Open tournaments are popping up left and right and with the World Championships coming in the Fall of 2024, everyone is starting to get very excited. No-gi grappling has gained a lot of traction probably due to the rise of the UFC and the argument that states that is “more realistic”.

Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerburg? 

Unless you have been living under a rock, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg that thinking about fighting. This is huge for BJJ and grappling martial arts.

The reach that these two have combined with the type of people that religiously follow their every move should not be underestimate. People that train Brazilian jiu-jitsu already get enthralled by the immense learning that takes place on the mats, mix that with intelligence in the audience that typically follows these tow and you are bound to strac the curiosity of some interesting people.

What we have noticed is that many people that train brazilian jiu-jitsu are in the following fields of work: Sales, finance, construction, tech, fitness, or law. 

Almost without question, these are the types of people that follow these two mega figure heads. If this actually goes down brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA gyms around the country are going ot be flooded with a bunch of smart, curious people that wnt to get fit just like Zuck and Musk.

Celebrity Hype

Even celebrities are encouraging the people to start training Brazilain jiu-jitsu. Figures like Asthon Kutcher, Demi Levot, and Tom Hardy all are high lievel Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners at this point. Not to mention, figureheads like Joe Rogan, Jocko, and Lex Fridman are all black belts and have dedicated a large part of their life to the martial art.

Our prediction is that more and more people will be intrigued to at least try out a class or two. 

Competition Scene EXPLODES

This is probably the craziest thing that we have been noticing about the BJJ scene.

Competitions are exploding in popularity! If you know anything about human nature, humans actions can be boiled down to one thing, incentives. With the rise of the competition scene in BJJ comes more prize money for those that start to train and want to make it ot te top. 

Even local tournaments are starting to offer up $6,000 cash prizes for the winner of their black belt open championships. 

This year, we have seen 10,000 competitors sign up for a weekend of fighting. IBJJF Worlds (August 2023) had 10,000 sign up to compete in their tournament. This is the single largest jiu-jitsu event in history. Jiu JItsu World League, another very large tournament host, continues to see a lot of traction as well with many of their tournaments (even on major holidays like mothers day) getting over 1,000 people to sig up! These are some of the largest BJJ tournaments recorded in history and we believe that growth only continues as more people decide to give martial arts a try in the coming decade.

Conclusion

Let’s see how this blog post ages. It will be a fun thing to look back upon 10 years form now and see if our intuition was right. We are not sure how big BJJ gets over the next 10 years but there is no doubt in our mind that it will not stay stagnant.

What do you think happens for the martial art? In our opinion, there is no way we do not see growth over the next decade. With the sport already being male-dominated, there is so much room for the female demographic to grow. As more women become black belts/gym owners/coaches or hit the highest stage of competition, it will only inspire a younger crowd to get involved creating an amazing cycle. 

Official UFC Partner
Stake | Leading Social Casino

Stake.us social casino has been tailor-made to provide the ultimate social, safe, and free gaming experience. With a wide variety of over 200 industry favorite games by the most reputable providers, you won’t find better action anywhere else.

Click Here
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.