Franjinha Miller: No-Gi Has A Cleaner Path To The Olympics Than Gi — And The Old Guard Is Splitting On Its Own Question

Franjinha Miller came out this week and said what a lot of people have been quietly thinking: no-gi has a cleaner path to the Olympics than gi does. Then he said the part everyone is skipping past.

"I don't think it's gonna be Olympic," he said. "It's too much private companies running the show right now."

That's the whole take. Both sentences. The community is debating which format television audiences would prefer, and Franjinha is saying it probably doesn't matter.

He's not the only one. André Galvão — four-time ADCC champion, ATOS head coach — made the same call on a different day. Gi is "too complicated" for Olympic audiences. His preferred format looks like ADCC: no-gi, five or six minute matches, submission-focused. Something a non-practitioner could follow without somebody sitting next to them explaining what's happening.

Worth pointing out: neither of these guys is a no-gi convert. Franjinha built Paragon BJJ around the gi. Galvão competed in both but made his name in submission grappling. When they say no-gi has a better Olympic shot, they're not promoting a format. They're telling you something about the other one.

The TV logic isn't complicated. The IOC needs a single governing body, participation numbers across enough countries, and something broadcasters can sell. No-gi grappling is easier to watch. The positions look familiar to anyone who follows wrestling. You don't need to explain what pulling guard is, or why ninety seconds of collar gripping is actually action, or what a De La Riva guard is and why someone would be in one on purpose.

Gi jiu-jitsu, watched cold, looks like two people lying on each other until one of them taps. Not a knock. A television problem.

The governing body mess is the harder issue. JJIF is IOC-recognized and has been trying to incorporate BJJ for years. But the actual power in the sport doesn't report to JJIF. IBJJF controls the belt system and the biggest competition calendar. UAEJJF has the prize money. ADCC answers to Sheikh Tahnoon. The UFC owns pieces of the commercial side. Everyone has a piece and nobody has the whole thing. You can't walk that into the IOC and ask for an Olympic slot.

No-gi has the same problem — ADCC, EBI, IBJJF no-gi worlds, a bunch of promotions all doing it differently. But it doesn't have the same ownership fights. No lineage disputes. No ADCC-certified belt system that every gym in the world relies on for promotions. You could theoretically build a unified no-gi structure without asking anyone to give up something they've built their identity around for thirty years.

Franjinha doesn't think that saves it either. Private control is the ceiling. No matter what format you bring to the IOC, without a credible amateur governance structure, you're not getting in.

And that's the actual split in the old guard.

Galvão thinks no-gi can get there with the right format. Franjinha thinks the governance problem has to come first and doesn't see it getting solved. Rickson Gracie is somewhere else entirely — criticizing sport jiu-jitsu for being "very directed to competition, to points, to time limits" rather than the art. Rickson doesn't want the Olympics. The Olympics is the thing he's criticizing.

So you've got the guy who wants no-gi in, the guy who wants no-gi in but thinks private companies will block it, and the guy who thinks the whole direction of the sport is already wrong. That's the old guard on its own question.

If any version of this makes the Olympics, it's not going to have lapels. That much seems agreed.

What they're not saying out loud is that the gi's Olympic lane isn't blocked by external politics. It's blocked by the structure the gi community built and protected for decades. IBJJF's control, UAE's leverage, the lineage ownership going back to the Gracies. None of those things get untangled without people losing something real.

No-gi doesn't have that problem yet. Maybe that's the argument. Or maybe Franjinha is right and it doesn't matter either way.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

Franjinha Miller: No-Gi Has A Cleaner Path To The Olympics Than Gi — And The Old Guard Is Splitting On Its Own Question

Sources

Related Stories