
Originally Posted by
Josh Whiteside
I honestly think He only cares about Ibjjf Gi worlds. These kids think differently then most. They don't care about money. They don't care about what most of us care about. I think all of these tournaments are just stepping stones to peak at Worlds next year in June. I don't think Miyao even cared about winning $20,000 I think he just saw it as an opportunity to compete. Honestly if he really thought about money or anything like that I'm sure he would have not competed in the Boston Open or in Las Vegas to save himself for ADCC. I think the only title he wants is IBJJF World Championship and that is all.
Yeah, this is very much true from what I've heard about them. They want to win IBJJF world titles first and foremost.
As far as the whole elite vs not elite and IBJJF thing, the reason why many people care about IBJJF results isn't even because they even like the IBJJF. ironically a lot of the best competitors dislike it and dislike the rules, the ref biases, etc. Rodolfo Vieira is legendary, one of the most successful IBJJF guys ever, and he hates it. He doesn't even do Pans anymore. Just the Worlds. He prefers to get paid and get treated better.
But it is often really easy to draw a correlation between IBJJF success and skill because so many of the world's best do a lot of IBJJF events. You have people that show up and do every Worlds, every Pans, every Europeans, every NoGi Worlds, every ADCC, and those are typically the events where you see the toughest competition. There are lots of IBJJF alternatives on the rise.
The Abu Dhabi World Pro is great, FIVE is great, Gracie Nationals is great, Polaris is great, Metamoris is there, Grappler's Quest is coming back, and there are lots of alternatives for people that don't prefer the IBJJF. So it doesn't mean if someone doesn't have much or any IBJJF success that they aren't good. Garry Tonon is a great example. Not the best IBJJF guy but one of the best grapplers alive. But for most successful IBJJF guys, it's safe to say they're pretty good (Marcelo, Galvao, Cobrinha, Rafa Mendes, Keenan, Lovato Jr., Buchecha, Braulio Estima, you name it.).
So alternatives are getting more traction, but there still is a ways to go before the IBJJF gets knocked off as being the organization that typically draws the best competitors right now. ADCC obviously brings in the best nogi competitors, but for groundfighting as a whole, the IBJJF is right at the top with them.