International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation History

The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation was created by Master Carlos Gracie Jr. to officially represent the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu around the world. Its main goals are to popularize, organize and regulate the sport on an international level. This work is similar to what the Confederacao Brasileira de Jiu-Jitsu (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Confederation) has done in Brazil, where the sport is highly popular and follows established guidelines.

Working in partnership with the CBJJ, the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation has developed the official competition rules of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This has been accomplished thanks to valuable insight from some of the art’s most respected masters who have worked together over the years to improve the rules and regulations. Nowadays this system represents the standard followed by Jiu-Jitsu practitioners all over the world.

The IBJJF is also actively involved in promoting and managing high quality tournaments that are crucial for the technical evolution of the sport and its popularization. The best example is the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship (or “Mundial de Jiu-Jitsu” in Portuguese), a huge tournament held annually in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This competition attracts the best fighters in the world and is a key element for the development of the sport. Countries like the United States, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Portugal, Sweden and France already crown world champions in Brazil, and this number grows a bit more every year.

Since Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is constantly evolving and becoming more popular around the globe, it is just natural that the major tournaments generate a lot of media coverage both inside and outside of Brazil. From television channels to magazines and internet sites, when a competition like the Mundial or Pan--American Jiu-Jitsu Championship takes place the eyes of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community and the grappling world in general turn to see it. This has generated a very strong consumer market and every year more and bigger companies choose to associate their brands and/or products to major events.

Another focus of the IBJJF work is on regulating and organizing how gradings occur. The main objective is to preserve the integrity of our martial art and allow all instructors and practitioners to have clear guidelines to measure their technical evolution. Therefore an international standard for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gradings has been established.