Any time there’s a conversation about the growth of competitive grappling, Fight to Win Pro should come up in talks. With their rock and roll feel and week after week schedule, the brain child of Seth Daniels and company continues to change the industry. This week, they hit their goal of paying out athletes one million dollars in 2017 and this shows that the company is a trend setting in professional grappling.

On Monday, the promotion took to Instagram to announce that they’ve paid out fighters $1,005,299 this year. All throughout the year Daniels spoke of hitting that goal and kept the public abreast of progress. Now, the company can breathe a sigh of relief as they hit that number with less than three weeks left in the year.

“One million just seemed like a great goal to hit and based on last year’s statistics we knew it would be possible if we could get to 40 events,” Daniels said. “Last year we did $400K in 19 events.”

Daniels’s hypothesis was correct as the promotion held 37 events this year in 16 states. Those fights featured some of the biggest names in the sport such as Gordon Ryan, Gilbert Burns, Talita Alencar, Ben Henderson, JT Torres, Yuri Simoes, Travis Stevens, and more. Even with so many events and stars on the ledger there was a time in which it looked like Fight to Win Pro wasn’t going to hit the goal.

“Yes, when we switched gears in September and started raising money for BJJ athletes affected by Hurricane Harvey,” Daniels said. “We donated all of our event profits and many fighters donated their commissions and fight purses to victims. Luckily, we hit a few home runs at the end of the year and made up for our soft summer.”

As competitive grappling continues to grow with promotions such as Fight to Win, Eddie BravoInvitational, Polaris, ACB JJ and others fighters are finding more ways to earn money for their craft. The fact that the opportunity to be paid is now available to more than just the top names in the sport helps many in the sport that are continuing to hone their craft.

“I think it is important to be honest and pay what you say you are going to,” Daniels said. “No matter what, we pay what we agree to pay, even if an event loses $10,000, our basic pay scale always applies.”

With 2018 looming and hopeful plans to branch out overseas, Fight to Win Pro continues to be a leader in the sport of competitive grappling. Hitting the mark of one million in fighter payouts is a monumental moment that should be praised as the sport grows.