The first thing I did when I got up this morning was watch Mackenzie Dern’s match against Gabi Garcia at ADCC. The second thing I did was send messages to several of my friends along the lines of “Wow, Dern beat Gabi?” with multiple interrobangs.
If your Facebook feed is anything like mine, 80 percent of the jiujitsu people you know seem to be reacting roughly the same way.
Many will say that the response to this match proves that Ralek Gracie has been wrong about saying Metamoris can’t afford to bring in women for matches, and those people will be right. But I want to take a different slant on that, partially because I try to look forward instead of backward, and partially because I do public relations for a living.
Practically everyone is talking about Gabi-Dern right now. With the world’s attention on this match, Metamoris has a serious opportunity to capitalize on that attention — and to earn back some goodwill from grappling fans.
If I were the Metamoris PR guy, I would tell Ralek that the world had given him a tremendous gift. I’d tell him to get on the phone with both Garcia and Dern right now and offer them a rematch at Metamoris in May.
For one thing, it would be a great match with a great story. Now that Gabi’s aura of invincibility has been punctured, people are more interested in her matches than ever; it’s extension of the great underdog story, where now the question becomes “can she do it again?”; they’re both in shape; Dern has nothing to lose, and Gabi probably wants redemption.
Finally, this gives Ralek Gracie himself a chance at a graceful withdrawal from his earlier comments. Ralek could give a statement that says “Wow, was I wrong: people are interested in women’s matches, and that’s why we’re bringing in these two great athletes.” Everybody wins. Remember when Dana White said women would never, ever fight in the UFC — and then he met Ronda Rousey? This could be that moment for Metamoris.
People are interested in matchups when they have great stories behind them. Right now, the world is thrilled because a dynamic underdog pulled on upset against a dominant force: imagine if we could see a repeat of that under submission-focused rules next month.
I’m interested in how the next chapter of the story ends: aren’t you?
People love stories. Whether it’s a great book, movie, or TV show, humans love to get caught up in a gripping narrative. That’s why people watch sports: the best contests feature rising action, a climax and satisfying resolution.
This applies to jiujitsu competitions, too. I’ve watched an absurd amount of jiujitsu matches, but there will always be a few that stand out to me, and I understand them the same way I understand any good story.
I want to talk today about one of the two best matches I’ve seen in person, a match featuring a legendary multiple-time world champion facing a newer, up-and-coming competitor.
Time was running short. With the world championship on the line, the six-time black belt world champion was down on points against the young upstart. There was just over a minute to go.
Then, from guard, the champ caught the challenger in a dangerous armlock: this elicited a fierce battle, with both competitors fully aware that the outcome of this submission hold would decide the match — and the Mundial championship. The champ was fighting to finish, with the challenger trying to hold on and win that first black belt Mundial gold.
Then the shoulder went. The challenger’s arm was suddenly at an angle that seemed all wrong.
But there was no tap. Arm hanging loosely in the air, the challenger refused to submit.
This was at the 2014 Mundials. I was a few rows back, watching this match live next to a tough purple belt friend of mine. “Why isn’t she tapping, Mary?” I asked. Mary has way more technical knowledge than I do, so I assumed she had an explanation. “I … I don’t know,” Mary said.
You might have figured this out from the headline or the match description, but the pronoun should give it away: this was Michelle Nicolini against Tammi Musumeci in the 2014 black belt final. Ultimately, an unbelievably tough but one-armed Musumeci gave up the sweep, yielding points — and a seventh world title — for Nicolini.
Speaking as a fan, this match doesn’t just represent why I watch jiujitsu, this is why I watch sports itself.
It has every element you need for a dramatic viewing experience: a great story, top-level skills, athletic prowess and a tremendous act of will. It features rising action, dramatic tension, and a last-minute comeback by a legendary competitor to defend her crown against the next generation.
It’s a great match and a great story. Here, watch it for yourself:
From the beginning, I want to say that there are many non-economic reasons to ensure some women’s matches make it onto PPV cards. The women I’m most interested in watching — Nicolini, Leticia Ribeiro, Beatriz Mesquita, Ana Laura Cordeiro, Gezary Matuda and Luiza Monteiro to name a few — have simply earned the right to compete in high-profile events. With six matches on every card, surely simple respect dictates that we get more than one match every six events.
But since basically every argument in defense of Metamoris starts with “the women’s matches won’t sell,” that’s the only argument I’m going to be addressing in this post. Simply put, I think that putting at least one women’s match (and ideally more) on each card makes economic sense.
Gracie admits the bout between Dern and Nicolini was successful enough in terms of box office drawing power and even match complexion, but suggests the dynamic between the two isn’t replicable at scale.
“We had that one match and it was cool, but that was more of, ‘That’s cool and that was interesting and I want to see that again if the girls are cute.’
Leaving aside Ralek Gracie’s offensive ‘if the girls are cute’ comment (and leaving aside what he must therefore think of Jeff Monson’s looks), this is an argument that is on its face absurd. So, the Nicolini-Dern matchup drew well at the box office and everybody liked the match — but that can’t be repeated? Really? We tried it, and it worked, and so we can’t try it again?
It is also an argument we hear with every iteration of women’s sports. Sometimes it winds up looking like a true argument, and sometimes (as with women’s tennis, which is more popular and a better game than men’s tennis) it looks silly. And Ralek’s comments just show the double-bind that this attitude causes: if you try it and it fails, you were right. If you try it and it works, well, clearly, you can’t replicate that success.
My capsule summary: every sporting event must be sold, and every sales pitch starts with a story. Generally speaking, the sports that have succeeded have taken the time to tell the stories of their athletes to give the audience some investment in the final product.
Who wouldn’t buy this card? I would buy this.
This should actually be easier with jiujitsu than with many other sports, because the core audience — grapplers — already has an investment in the product, and they know good jiujitsu when they see it.Every new product faces this challenge, but the barrier to entry here is much smaller.
Explain who people like Michelle Nicolini and Leticia Ribeiro are, for example, and you’ve got a ready-made marketing strategy. Let me explain why this makes economic sense in both the short- and long-term.
WHY IT MAKES SENSE IN THE SHORT TERM
There are three reasons putting at least one women’s match on each Metamoris card makes economic sense: match quality, targeted audience marketing, and opportunity cost. Let’s start with the first because it’s the simplest.
The Metamoris audience is composed of people who want to watch exciting submission grappling, and women’s matches deliver. Plus, many of the best women in the world have expressed interest in competing. Do we really think the average fan would rather see Jeff Monson, Chael Sonnen (who gets two matches) and Babalu than the some of the greatest women ever?
If you see matches with one of these women and don’t like it, you might not actually like jiujitsu.
Even if you buy that, though, consider that there are 6 matches on each card, and people buy cards for different reasons. As I’ll discuss in a moment, Metamoris has UFC fighters on the card to try to draw fans from mixed martial arts.
Having a variety of matches enables you to tell a variety of stories — and women’s matches are particular stories that would appeal to particular demographics. Think of a blue and a purple belt sitting 10 rows up for Nicolini-Musumeci: even if those people aren’t interested in, say, Chael-Babalu, having a match featuring one or both of those women draws them in even if you wouldn’t otherwise get them to buy the event.
Finally, consider return on investment. When the Metamoris Needs Women images started circulating widely, I honestly thought there was a good chance Metamoris would add a women’s match to the card. This would have been a way to signal that they heard fans’ concerns, and given that a lot of the top competitors train in California anyway, would have been a relatively small economic investment.
Now more than ever.
Instead, the Metamoris brass chose not just to forego a women’s match, but to give an interview saying they might get to it eventually if the women were deemed sufficiently attractive.
Which would have been a wiser economic strategy: to invest a few thousand dollars into adding a women’s match to the card, or to alienate a healthy portion of your core audience?
Let’s say I’m wrong about this economic calculus, though. Let’s say it would have increased Metamoris’ costs in the short term. It still would have been a wiser economic decision in the long run. Here’s why:
WHY IT MAKES SENSE IN THE LONG TERM
I don’t buy that women’s matches wouldn’t draw, and Metamoris’ lone experience with a women’s match supports my thoughts. But even if they wouldn’t draw now, adding some matches would be a great chance for Metamoris to retain core fans and to expand its audience.
The primary audience for Metamoris is always going to be people who enjoy grappling — and that audience is composed largely of grapplers. It’s smart to both recognize that this is the core audience and to attempt to expand that audience.
This, I believe, is what Metamoris is trying to do by bringing in prominent MMA fighters: people who have seen Brendan Schaub, Joe Lauzon and Chael Sonnen in the UFC may check out a Metamoris PPV even if they aren’t fans of submission grappling per se.
That’s the theory, anyway. If this is the perspective we’re adopting, however, this is just another reason why it makes more economic sense to have women’s matches at Metamoris: fan retention.
Who is more likely to stick around and buy multiple events, the MMA fan who likes Brendan Schaub or the fan of women’s jiujitsu who likes Michelle Nicolini? Chances are that without MMA guys on the card, the fight fan is just going to go back and watch the UFC. Unless every Metamoris card contains the likes of Schaub — a move which risks alienating the core audience — the people who are only fans of mixed martial arts are likely to be one-and-done buyers.
Conversely, if you’re a fan of great jiujitsu, you’re probably going to love watching Nicolini, Mesquita, Ana Laura Cordeiro, etc. Some of the most exciting matches these days are women’s matches, and if you’re reading this post, you probably saw the Brendan Schaub match. Enough said there.
A tournament is a story. A career is a story.
Again, I dispute the notion that putting on women’s matches would cost Metamoris money. If so, though, one match on each card could function as a “loss leader” — to get new fans in the door and create further demand.
Every great new product in the market transforms that market. If you’re a guy grappler who has never seen a women’s match, watching a terrific contest of this nature is likely to leave you wanting more. That’s one reason it’s a long-term winner to have women’s matches at Metamoris.
But there is another, broader reason. Currently, fewer women train jiujitsu than men. This is sometimes used as a reason not to put women’s matches on PPVs. First, that’s based on the faulty assumption that men will not watch women’s sports.
Additionally, though, Metamoris should think about this as an untapped market: the more women who train, the more potential grappling fans there are. And how do we get more women to train and keep training without showcasing the best women athletes?
With more visible women’s matches, more women train and get the benefits of jiujitsu. That means more people training, and more people watching. That makes us all better.
IN CONCLUSION
Here’s the sad part: with Ralek’s most recent comments, it might honestly be too late for Metamoris.
There’s a window of opportunity for everything, and the last few days may have slammed that window shut. An opportunity to tell fans “yeah, we heard you” turned into a monumental blunder that sent the message “yeah, we don’t care about you.” It will take considerable effort and will to come back from that.
I’m an optimist by nature, so I’ll finish by noting two things: first, that Metamoris competitor Polaris has pledged to have at least one women’s match on each card; and second, that the fundamental principles I’ve written about above remain in place.
There is still a market out there, ready to be served and expanded. Some company, maybe Polaris, is going to take advantage.
At the end of the day, I want everyone to train. I want everyone who trains to feel like there is a place for them in jiujitsu. And I want to see more matches like Nicolini-Musumeci.
Making sure that more great women get the chance to compete on pay per view cards would serve all three goals. Let’s make this happen.
If you train, you’re probably aware that Metamoris 5 is this Saturday. The high-profile submission-only superfight event is something that I always look forward to. I’ve bought every stream.
But then, I’m obsessed with and fascinated by jiu-jitsu. I watch an insane amount of matches and instructional videos: I’m always going to purchase these events. In order for Metamoris to be financially viable over the long term, it has to expand its audience beyond people like me.
This is a classic marketing challenge, and I’m sensitive to it. I’m glad Metamoris exists to deliver amazing matches, and I want it to succeed. Which is why it was so heartening to see the organization seize a key moment to engage a broad base of fans this week … and so disappointing to watch the group undo the good work at the last minute, turning what could have been a bunch of goodwill into some hard feelings.
Still excited to watch these matches.
The story starts this past week, when Kevin Casey sadly had to undergo surgery and pull out of his match with Vinny Magalhaes. As anyone who has been around combat sports knows, injuries are a fact of life and can play hell with a card at the last minute — in fact, Casey himself only got onto the last Metamoris card after Magalhaes got staph.
People got excited: tons of black belts would love the opportunity to roll against a world-class guy like Vinny on the big stage. I nominated my instructor and sent the announcement to other black belts who also applied. And I wasn’t alone: suddenly there was a buzz, and Metamoris was inundated with outstanding jiu-jitsu people lobbying for the spot.
Support your local black belt.
It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was the best of times because Metamoris rallied fans to help them select from among 10 finalists, and people really got into it.
It was the worst of times because this was where Metamoris made a huge, critical blunder. They posted 10 entries to Facebook, one for each of the finalists, and put this notation in every one of them:
We will make our final selections based mainly on the support of our audience. The only way your “support” will be measured is by sharing, liking and commenting on the post of the athlete you support most, here on our Facebook page.
This is exactly what I would have advised them to do, frankly: this way, people are motivated to help spread the word. That means a tremendous amount of free advertising, generated by an energized fan base that wants to support their instructor, their training partner, their teammate or their friend.
And that’s how you reach casual fans. That’s how you get beyond the core market of obsessive fans like me: you encourage us to like and share the post with the implicit contract that, if we build enough support for you, we’ll get to see the guy we want on Metamoris. Everybody wins!
Unless, of course, the fans give you a different result than the one you want, and you decide to pick someone else.
Jeremy Arel.
This is one of the finalists, Jeremy Arel. Arel is a Gordo black belt who runs Great Grappling and has a popular YouTube channel. (To be clear: although Jeremy is a Carolina guy, I did not vote for him. I’d have been happy to see Jeremy get the slot, too, but I voted for Super Dave Zennario.)
Let me be clear about one thing: among the 10 finalists, there were varying levels of qualifications — but I think most viewers would have been happy with any of the finalists. Especially this late in the game, finding a perfect match is difficult. Allowing the viewers to choose seemed like a great way to make lemons from lemonade, especially with options like James Puopolo, Bruno Bastos, Matt Arroyo and more.
Here’s the problem, though. Jeremy Arel got by far the most votes, and generated about three times the amount of online support as Diniz.
People who supported Arel are understandably very upset, and the situation has generated a firestorm of comments on the Metamoris Facebook. What started as a great, feel-good underdog story turned into hard feelings in a hurry.
Now, I’m not going to say who I think Metamoris should have picked, or even who I think would make the best match. All I’m going to say is this: it’s a disastrous marketing error to tell people you’re going to operate by a set of rules, let them get excited, and then dash those expectations. In this situation, you can either pick who you want to be on the card and let people know, or you can let them vote and abide by the results of the vote (especially when the results are as clear as they were here).
What you can’t do is tell people that you’ll make the decision based “mainly” on votes, then let them spend hours working to advertise on your behalf for free — and then pull the rug out from under them.
This isn’t just about this Metamoris card: it’s about future events. I think having a “Rocky” match on each card, where fans vote for a relatively unknown black belt, could have had great potential. Let’s say the Metamoris folks had gone with Arel. Now, every average blue belt who is obsessed with jiu-jitsu — yes, I’m talking about myself, but every other guy out there like me as well — knows that we can get our instructors on Metamoris if we work hard enough.
Almost 4,000 people liked or shared Arel’s post in fewer than 24 hours. Imagine the reach of that effort. Imagine the goodwill following through would have created. Imagine the kind of effort guys like me would have put out lobbying for our people. Now, though? I’ll still buy the streams — I’m still addicted to jiu-jitsu, after all — but I’ll think twice before I share content like this again. I do enough marketing for my day job that I don’t need to do it for free if my people won’t get anything out of it.
Some people might say that they wouldn’t have any interest in having an Internet poll make matches. They might just want to see the best competitor take his shot against Vinny, and that’s totally fair.
My point is simply this: if you raise expectations among your fans, you have to meet or exceed those expectations. Either let the people vote and give them what they want, or just pick the guy you think is best and let the chips fall where they may.
I hope Diniz puts on a tremendous performance on Saturday and for many Metamoris events to come. But while I watch that match with a sense of excitement, in the back of my mind I’ll be thinking about the thousands of people who are watching with a bad taste in their mouths — or maybe not watching at all.
Today, Royler Gracie headlines the third Metamoris Pro jiu-jitsu invitational in a high-profile match. Although I’ve never taken a seminar from or trained with Royler, I will be cheering hard for him today.
Because his opponent, Eddie Bravo, can be a controversial figure, this matchup has been polarizing. But when you look back on what Royler Gracie has accomplished during his storied career, this much is clear: it isn’t necessary to say anything negative about an opponent when there is so much positive to say about Royler.
Royler was the first truly dominant featherweight. During a run of dominance from 1996-1999, Royler won gold at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championships (Mundials) for four straight years. At the time, this was a record. Who did he beat in the finals? Only guys like Shaolin, Leo Vieira and Draculino.
All told, Royler Gracie has nine black belt gold medals from Mundials, ADCC and the Pans. Nine! In 1999, he took gold at the worlds ADCC and the Pans in the same year.
He also took a moment to let a random blue belt get a picture with him at the 2002 Mundials.
I’m listing mostly sport jiu-jitsu achievements, but Royler also made his mark elsewhere. Royler has 11 professional MMA fights. He is also a renowned teacher, developing a next generation of jiu-jitsu talent as leader of Gracie Humaita.
What we’ve just discussed is a complete body of work, a legacy that encompasses all aspects of the martial arts: training, competing in multiple formats and rulesets, doing the open weight divisions, fighting, teaching. That’s a legacy worthy of great respect.
Royler Gracie turns 50 next year. He looks like he’s in his early 30s, so sometimes people forget or misjudge that. As someone who turns 40 this year, I also appreciate his willingness to put it on the line when he really has nothing to prove to anyone.
Here’s the crux of it: for the same reasons I am rooting for Royler, I ultimately do not think it matters what happens today. No one can take nine gold medals from the most prestigious tournaments away from him. A body of work is completed over a lifetime, and for years, Royler has created a resume that few can even approach.
No matter what happens today, Royler Gracie is one of the absolute greatest of all time. I will be rooting for him to add another win to his resume at Metamoris.
