Starting this year, IBJJF will no longer reward division closeouts with cash prizes and rank points, as they’ve officially announced their new anti-closeout rules.
The announcement comes as the discussion of closeouts continues to steep among the jiu-jitsu community. Ultimately, fans, competitors, and the sport as a whole are being robbed of entertaining match-ups that will only serve to improve our sport and gather more attention. Just last year, the Ruotolo brothers made headlines by choosing not to closeout their division at 2021 IBJJF Worlds and put on an incredible performance in the process.
The IBJJF’s official statement on closeouts reads as follows,
“The IBJJF would like to officially announce the new rules regarding closing out fights for the 2022 World Championships. There will be no cash prizes allocated to any athlete that closes out in their finals match of the World Championships. Furthermore, the athletes who close out will also forfeit their rank points for the event and will potentially affect seeding position for next season. Please keep in mind that the IBJJF has a disciplinary penalty already implemented regarding immediate double DQ. Here is article 6.1.5 in Disciplinary Penalties:When one or both of the athlete’s disregard the seriousness of the competition or perform actions simulating a fake combat.”
IBJJF also announced that they will also be bringing back the Grand Prix in partnership with FloGrappling. There will be 5 GPs this year. The first GP is going to feature 1-male and 1-female division on the same day. The dates, locations, and weight classes will be announced soon.
Lastly, IBJJF announced that they’ll be implementing a cash prize at the end of the season, but didn’t provide any further details.
2022 IBJJF World Championships take place in Long Beach, California from June 1-5, 2022.
