The Grappling Tournament You Didn’t Know You Missed
Is Kazakhstan’s million-dollar grappling league too good to be true?
The best grappling tournament of the year happened last weekend — and almost no one knew about it.
The Almaty International Grappling Association, or AIGA, is an elite, team-based grappling league based out of Kazakhstan. Blending top-level grappling with a Champions League-style format, it brought together some of the most recognisable and best athletes in the sport.
Seriously, just take a look at some of these names:
Kaynan Duarte, Roberto Jimenez, Diego “Pato” Oliveira, Dorian Olivarez, Elijah Dorsey, Dante Leon, Giancarlo Bodoni, Chris Wojcik, Izaak Michell, Daiki Yonekura, Kenta Iwamoto, Gianni Grippo, Daniel Schuardt, Deandre Corbe, Gabriel Sousa, and Oliver Taza.
Cumulatively, just in the finals alone, these athletes hold: 5× ADCC World Championships, 2× ADCC Bronze Medals, 2× ADCC Trials Championships, 6× IBJJF No-Gi World Championships, 4× No-Gi Pan Championships, 2× Polaris Championships, and a WNO Championship.
Like, get fucked. That’s insane.
These teams battled it out over two days for a prize pool totalling $1 million — and it was broadcast completely free on YouTube.
Currently, combined views sit at around 198k over the two days. In comparison, the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) racked up an incredible 3.5 million views over two days last year.
So how did I not hear about this until a week before? Why did barely anyone at my gym full of Jiu Jitsu nerds know about it? How did a tournament with the same prize money (albeit divided) and arguably better athletes only attract 5.6% of the viewership — even though both events were free to watch?
Now, obviously, my opening line is a bit of hyperbole. If almost 200,000 people read my blog each week, I’d be creaming my pants. But with everything outlined above, this should have been so much bigger.
Naturally, in some corners of the Jiu Jitsu community — especially on online forums like Reddit — rumours started swirling that AIGA is a front for a money laundering scheme.
So I took a wee journey down the rabbit hole of sport funding in Central Asia and who’s behind AIGA, to see if any of these rumours held water.
Why are people suspicious?
The massive prize pool, for starters. It’s no secret ADCC and IBJJF aren’t exactly making it rain. CJI is the only other tournament to offer a prize this substantial — something Craig Jones leaned heavily on to promote his inaugural event, even showing up on Joe Rogan’s podcast with $1 million in cash.
Kazakhstan being the location also raised a few eyebrows. Fair or not, Central Asia has a reputation for opaque financial structures and a blurred line between sport, government, and private capital.
AIGA also seems to lack any clear, named sponsors or transparent revenue models (PPVs or major broadcasting deals, for example). Combined with the beautiful, high-level production — massive stage, lights, camera crews, staff, individual team kits, international flights, and accommodations — the revenue streams just don’t add up.
The venue itself, the 5,000-capacity Baluan Sholak Sports Palace on Abay Avenue 44 in Almaty, wouldn’t have brought in much revenue either.
I couldn’t find exact prices, but a quick look at ticketon.kz shows similar events priced between $10–$30 per ticket. The live stream showed plenty of empty seats throughout the event, but for argument’s sake, let’s say it sold out over the whole weekend at the top price. That’s around $300,000.
That wouldn’t even cover the 3rd place prize. Sounds a bit shifty, right?
But here’s the reality:
The likely answer is much simpler — and much less exciting. All of the above is pure speculation without any evidence of dodginess. The Jiu Jitsu community loves a bit of drama (Jay Rod, anyone?), and a high-level tournament like this was bound to attract gossip.
The most plausible explanation is private backers. No criminal ties to AIGA have been proven, and there are zero public legal cases linking the organisation to money laundering that I could find.
It’s likely AIGA is bankrolled by a wealthy patron or consortium, possibly with government ties or ambitions to “sportswash” the region’s image — similar to what’s been seen in football, F1, and combat sports in the Middle East.
Kazakhstan itself has been making a push for global recognition, investing heavily in sports, culture, and tech to gain legitimacy on the world stage. The country has also been actively working to enhance its financial regulatory framework, introducing new laws targeting money laundering, especially around non-profits.
I know, I know — part of me wished I uncovered something huge. Mainly because I could sell this article to Vice or something.
Alas, we’ll have to settle for the fact that Kazakhstan simply put on a fucking banger of a grappling show.
Highlights:
Fabricio Andrey damn near tore a bloke’s hamstring off with a devastating Suleov Stretch.
Pato ripped a heelhook so evil it caused a mass brawl on the mats with the Dagestani team.
Hejrat Rashid submitted Gabriel Sousa after being dominated for most of the match.
Izaak Michell caught a 23-second armbar on Chris Wojcik, putting his team through to the final — this did not spark joy for me.
Young up-and-comer Pawel Jaworski beating Oliver Taza — this kid is one to watch.
Kaynan Duarte losing to Ruslan Abdulaev in a shock upset.
Jason Nolf gave us an actually entertaining match for the first time against Jed Hue — then got DQ’d in his next match for being a meathead and slamming.
A beautiful match from the always awesome Dante Leon and Deandre Corbe.
Roberto Jimenez beating Giancarlo Bodoni in another shock upset.
Big Dan’s roid rage coming out to say hello after he blew his opponent’s knee with a reap from his massive tree trunk legs.
Overall, the event was fantastic. Kendall Reusing and Hywel Teague were brilliant on commentary, and a special shoutout to the MC who pronounced every single Dagestani name flawlessly.
The full streams can be watched here and here.
Rumour has it this may be the last AIGA event. I sincerely hope this isn’t true. It proved to be easily the best tournament of the year and will give CJI2 a run for its money.
Just put a bit more effort into the promo next time, guys.
I was just watching the event haha 😂😂
AIGA is always dope but they need better marketing for sure.