UFC BJJ has been carving out their spot in the submission grappling landscape and a jiu jitsu league co-owner/ widely known metal guitarist has weighed in on their maneuvers so far. Zoltan Bathory is a founding member of the band Five Finger Death Punch and also serves as a co-owner for Professional Grappling Federation with a new season debuting on Wednesday.
With the ubiquity of the UFC brand, their recent efforts with Zuffa Boxing, and now the UFC Brazilian Jiu Jitsu endeavours indicate a desire to want to monopolize every tendril of the competitive mixed martial arts sphere. When the axe slinger and competitive Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt was asked for his thoughts on the UFC BJJ efforts, Bathory said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Well, first and foremost, we are very close friends actually. So this is the scenario where we, as competition promoters [and] owners of PGF, are in a unique position because we are a team-based jiu-jitsu championship right. Which is, you have five members on your team and all your team members [are] fighting all the other team members.”
“So this is team-based, not individual-based. So we are fundamentally different, we’re not getting each other; we’re not competition to each other. It’s completely different format, right. So they are; most jiu jitsu competitions are individual. Combat sport individuals are fighting for their individual win or loss.”
“So we’re not in each other’s way. In fact we are really good at finding talent. So a lot of our guys end up in the UFC BJJ. In fact, we even have an agreement that every champion from the PGF gets a spot on UFC BJJ if they want it, right? So we’re very close in that way. They do what UFC does. So, their structure is same as UFC. That they have three rounds and that’s how they operate because that’s what is familiar to their fan base.”
“Then you have all the other, ADCC to CJI to all these other competitions that, various rule sets, but they [are] all individual-based. There are only a handful of team-based ones, right? In that way, like if you look at PGF, because it’s team-based, it fundamentally changes how it operates, right? This was also because what was important for us, again, the rule set is important.”
“Because we wanted to have a really fast entertaining program that helps jiu jitsu to spread. We want your grandmother know what is a triangle choke, right. If you get there, we are mainstream, right. So that’s one thing. Second thing, we wanted the athletes to become professional athletes. So get them paid, for to get them paid, we have to; well first, I was the investor. I put up the money for that.”
“But I knew what I was doing in the sense that we had a plan where eventually it switches into a sustainable structure and we got there. So, it became a franchise-style competition where we have four teams right now. But it’s expanding to eight and then beyond. But every single team is owned by an individual, right, or a team.”
UFC BJJ, PGF, and the “reason why the billionaire class owns sports teams”
When further expounding upon the differences between PGF and UFC’s submission grappling branch, Bathory continued [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“So, now these are completely owned franchise teams that are fighting each other. We have a lot of interest because it’s kind of like getting into the NFL and NHL on the ground level, when it started. Imagine at the time you could grab a team that you could own today, right? So basically that’s what we’re doing.”
“So, these teams are owned and the regionals. So, for example, Alabama Twisters, they already have a massive fan base because all the people from Alabama [are] rooting for this team now, right? Then we have the Las Vegas Kings, Colorado Wolverines, and then the Philly Phenoms. They do amazing, right? I see how these franchises are growing massively.”
“As I said, they completely own and not to get into the business side of it to bore people, but there’s a reason why the billionaire class owns sports teams. The tax rules completely change. It’s a very different environment when it comes to that. It’s an asset. You’re not sponsoring a team, you own the team. So, it’s a sellable asset. That changes everything.”
“We knew that we were going to get there eventually and we have, right? So that means now we have the ruleset that is to me should be the standard, the most entertaining, fastest, most dynamic, and it’s sustainable. That means this [is] gonna just get bigger and bigger and bigger. We managed to achieve those goals. Athletes getting paid and the world learns jiu-jitsu.”