Spend any amount of time in the martial art / sport realm of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and you cannot help but notice an inordinate amount of machismo, and unfortunately machismo is accompanied by its close relative sexism. It is something many of us ignore, or laugh off, but in reality it is becoming a serious issue in our community and it is perpetuated by folks such as Ralek Gracie and his promotion Metamoris which has a PPV event this weekend.
As if trying to monopolize submission only events via offering exclusive contracts to stars such as Gary Tonon where one of the many ludicrous stipulations was that he can only fight in Metamoris events (keeping in mind there are only two a year), was not enough… Coupled with a purposeful ploy at bumping submission only PPV promoters such as Copa Podio where Metamoris scheduled there events on the same days as Copa twice in an apparent effort to directly compete with PPV audiences. I suppose there is nothing technically “illegal” with these kinds of behavior but in general they are considered a giant dick move that really is not needed in such a niche community.
But I personally draw the line when Ralek and his organization is blatantly sexist and misogynistic in there attitude and approach to once again not including any female fighters on the card!
“We had one match and it was cool, but that was more of. ‘Thats cool and that was interesting and I want to see that again if the girls are cute.’You know how it is. The UFC wouldn’t even have a women’s division if it wasn’t for Ronda Rousey.” – Ralek Gracie in response to no women’s matches on the Metamoris 6 card.
So prior to spending your hard earned money on the Metamoris 6 card this Mothers Day weekend, think about how you would like Ralek to address your mother, sister, aunt, or wife in one of his “Women Empowerment” seminars!? We have enough problems in this world where we do not need to feed (literally) those who are just plain racist, sexist, or just down right assholish in our martial community. Please do not support Metamoris for any of the crapola reasons I have listed. Take your mom out to a nice meal on you instead. Much better time and money spent, I promise.