There seems to always be some controversy looming over Metamoris in the world of Jiu Jitsu. In many ways Metamoris is in many ways the organization that every fighter loves to be a part of, yet loves to hate. Recently Ralek Gracie took to his Instagram to defend Metamoris as well as set a few things straight. This, according to Gracie was to shed some light and clarify a few issues for the “people who really care about our future and the future of submission grappling.” In his post Gracie spoke candidly about the sponsorship issues affecting Metamoris, and how contrary to popular belief they are far from rolling in dough, in spite of the organization’s consistently stellar productions.
Ralek Gracie’s Response:
“I can’t assure you that a certain individual had better intentions with an Instagram heist than pumping up his own ego for not being invited to compete at Metamoris Pro or other reasons not worth mentioning. With that said, I’m all about improvement and this is a good opportunity to shed light for the people who really care about our future and the future of submission grappling. First, we started Metamoris to elevate the sport of Jiu Jitsu and its athletes. People think we are rolling in the dough because we have the best quality production and that we have been financially backed since M5. Truth is we lost our backer after M2. Metamoris 3 was a huge risk and the largest athlete payout yet. We broke even on M3, a huge victory. Metamoris 5 and 6 did not bring in the expected live streams, setting us back in a big way. As a means of recovering we created Metamoris All Access, Metamoris Challenger and Metamoris Underground. Although they are amazing ideas we spread ourselves thin. I’d like to apologize to everyone incorrectly billed through our site, we were not ready to launch when we did and we have since identified all the issues and brought on qualified people to develop the site. Still, you believed in us, trusted us and we let you down and that is something no amount of money can replace. To the athletes athletes, most of whom are supportive and patient with our mission and know that we have gone big in building their individual brands as well as pushing to pay them above industry standards, it hurts me to delay but you WILL be paid. This patience is not owed to us, though we are grateful for it. Lastly, to the fans of Metamoris I’m personally sorry for the loss in momentum. I made mistakes trying to honor what we all love and I fell short on many levels… We have now formed an executive team to manage our processes on a level that reflects our mission and capacity and are in talks with several qualified investors. In essence we are regrouping, applying the lessons of our mistakes and gearing up for the strongest year in grappling history. That said, it won’t serve us to dwell on past mistakes. Onward and upward. -Ralek- P.S. fun is doing the impossible.”
