UFC is making Jiu-Jitsu even bigger.
Fight Pass Invitational 9
Jiu-Jitsu/grappling is already a big sport across the world. It’s in the Olympics, there’s tournaments every weekend, medals are being handed out and people are getting popular. Even ONE Championship in Thailand has their own grappling division. But, it’s not as big as it could be.
Jiu-Jitsu isn’t getting televised recognition like other combat sports are, and UFC is looking to change that. They started their Fight Pass Invitational, which is a Jiu-Jitsu event on their UFC Fight Pass subscription service. Recently, they started to sign big names in the sport such as Miley Musumeci, who headlines Fight Pass Invitational 9 Thursday, December 5th at 8PM.
Ahead of that event, former UFC fighter Claudia Gadelha, who now is a director of business strategy in the UFC and focused on helping fighters, as well as UFC Fight Pass, had a talk with all the competitors for the upcoming event.
She explained that back when she first started, she got into MMA because Jiu-Jitsu couldn’t pay the bills. Now, it’s a different, better game.
Let me grab your guys attention for a second. First of all, very proud of you guys for being here. We know how hard it is to show up prepared for something like this. 22 years ago when I started training Jiu-Jitsu, I watched my mother struggling to raise 5 kids and I was like, “I have to change that. I have to change the trajectory of my family.” And I saw in Jiu-Jitsu an opportunity to change my life. So, I went and started training Jiu-Jitsu. But, it was too early to build a career in Jiu-Jitsu 22 years ago. So, then I went and started training MMA and started getting punched in the face, kicked in the head. That was the vehicle that got me to where I am today. UFC really changed my life completely. The reason why I’m here today, is because the UFC gave me an opportunity to go fight and believe me, I didn’t want to get punched in the face. I wanted to compete Jiu-Jitsu. That was my dream. There was no opportunity back then, unfortunately. But, I got to win in UFC and if you ask me what my biggest win in my career was, it was to go back home, proud that I was the kid that was able to buy my mom a house and change the whole trajectory of my family. I go back to that to kind of remind you guys that this is the generation that has the opportunity to use Jiu-Jitsu as the vehicle to change your life.
UFC Fight Pass Invitational 9 is headlined by Mikey Musumeci vs. Filipe Machado on UFC Fight Pass, Thursday, December 5 at 9PM ET.
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