It turns out that there is one small glimmer of hope for BJJ fans around the world, Polaris 13 is still going ahead albeit with some adjustments to the card and absolutely no crowd. The promotion announced on Facebook that the main attraction of the card, the Polaris Absolute Grand Prix, will be cancelled as the tournament relied heavily on athletes being flown in from either Brazil or America. Due to recent travel restrictions and general caution, they thought it best to scrap this and any other matches featuring competitors from outside of the UK.

The news comes as the vast majority of BJJ promotions have been forced to cancel all future events for the foreseeable future, from open tournaments like the IBJJF and UAEJJF to fight night events like Fight 2 Win. Even the UFC has cancelled the next three events in a row as a result of the Coronavirus, although thankfully Khabib Nurmagomedov v Tony Ferguson is apparently still going ahead. The main difference between the other BJJ events and Polaris 13, is that the UK promotion will be streamed live on UFC Fightpass. This means that even without any live gate, the promotion will still receive some income and with local fighters instead of the biggest names, their expenditure will be significantly lower as well.

??? Polaris 13 Announcement ???After a lot of deliberations, we have decided to proceed with Polaris 13. With travel… Posted by Polaris Professional Jiu Jitsu Invitational on Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The event will be streamed live on UFC Fightpass, click here to watch.

We were fortunate enough to get an insider’s perspective on what it’s like to be training in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak, click here to find out more.