One of MMA’s longest-running promotions will pay the highest prize in Brazilian MMA history in 2025.
On Monday, Jungle Fight announced it will hold two tournaments to crown “King of the Jungle” and “Queen of the Jungle,” starting with the eight-man lightweight tournament that kicks off June 14 in Brasilia, Brazil. The promotion has yet to reveal a date for the women’s flyweight grand prix.
Tournament winners will be paid R$500,000 (nearly $90,000 USD), the highest pay in Brazilian MMA history. The lightweight matchups are Carlos Alexandre da Costa vs. Lucas Campos, Marcelo Medeiros vs. Bruno Guimarães Santos, Eliwelton Travassos vs. Arcangelo Anjo, and Jorge Silva vs. Cleiton Morais.
Jungle Fight landed a massive TV deal with Globo, the largest network in Latin America and a former longtime partner of the UFC in the country. Globo airs Jungle Fight title bouts live on network television, with full cards airing on SporTV and Combate. Figures of the deal were not disclosed.
“A night where two fighters will win R$1 million in total,” Jungle Fight founder and president Wallid Ismail said following an event Saturday. “It’s going to be incredible. Imagine how happy I am to be able to pay this gigantic amount of money to these warriors. They deserve it.”
Ismail’s latest event, Jungle Fight 136, aired Saturday night on Globo and saw Laura Vasconcelos stop Laura Fontoura in just over three minutes to defend the strawweight championship in the main event. Vanderlei Gonçalves unified the welterweight belts with a second-round TKO over Anderson Nascimento in the co-headliner.
