William Tackett, a two-time ADCC Trials champion, is absent from the ADCC World Championships bracket this year…
Why? Well, he laid it all out exactly on the FloGrappling Show – the financial numbers simply don’t favor competing there right now.
Here is what he had to say on the topic:
Right now I’m making more money than I would make competing for ADCC and I’m getting the right type of match per year that I want…
Right now I would like this to kind of be sustainable for me for now.
If I went to ADCC, it would be more like, okay, I either took a big pay cut or I’m not doing too well.
The decision ties back to Tackett’s move from Austin to Las Vegas, made to pursue UFC BJJ opportunities and step away from years of coaching at Fight Factory.
He described the relocation as his chance to finally compete full-time, rather than treating it as secondary to coaching duties:
I’ve been a coach for so long, basically making competing like a part-time job.
This gave me the opportunity to really make competing a full-time job and put all of my effort into it.
Tackett said competing for little or no money undercuts his leverage with promoters who do pay:
If I’m competing for free this weekend, then now I’m not really worth this much.
So if I exclusively limit myself to what I’m making where I’m making money competing, then now I can kind of drive my value up a little bit.
Still, ADCC hasn’t lost its pull for him.
After winning Trials in 2019 and again alongside his brother Andrew, Tackett’s 2022 ADCC run ended early with a first-round loss to Mateusz Szczecinski…
A result that still lingers:
I didn’t really get to scratch that itch, those two minutes I was on the mat with Szczecinski…
I would love to get back out there and really have like a proper ADCC experience.