Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • May 9, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com Fighter's Resolve Entrepreneur launches global 'grappling' bouts from tiny CT suburb By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com K ipp Kollar saw an opportunity with a new sport 21 years ago and seized upon it. The former white-collar insurance pro- fessional turned entrepreneur founded the North American Grappling Association (NAGA), which is based out of his Marlborough home and posted nearly $4 million in gross revenue last year, host- ing wrestling-style events across the globe. Grappling, which can include fighting tech- niques like freestyle and catch wrestling, Brazil- ian jiujitsu, judo, sambo and luta livre Brasileira, is a sport in which contestants try to get their opponents to submit or quit through holds or locks, without inflicting pain. There is no striking in grappling — distin- guishing it from more recognizable sports like Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and MMA, which have garnered national media attention in recent years and whose fighters have reached celebrity status in same way other American professional sports athletes have achieved. NAGA bills itself as promoting the largest submission grappling tournaments in the world. It held 60 tournaments last year across the U.S., and in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Monaco and Brazil, or more than one per week- end on average. One recent weekend in April, about 2,200 people competed in two NAGA events in Honolulu and Morristown, N.J., Kollar said. "There isn't anybody that runs as many tournaments as us nationally and there certainly isn't anybody who runs them internationally except … for [the Inter- national Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation]," said Kollar. NAGA is, by far, the largest grappling league, said Kirik Jenness, the official records keeper for mixed martial arts and owner of MMA.TV and Mixedmartialarts.com. "If you look at the number of events per year, particularly over time … that's when you get a sense of how truly dominant NAGA is," Jenness said. Jenness said most people know about UFC and MMA. "Grappling is that same sport, but you take out the punching and the kneeing and the FOCUS BUSINESS OF SPORTS The Marlborough-based North American Grappling Association hosts bouts around the world, attracting more than 1,000 competitors to single events. Unlike Ultimate Fighting Championship and MMA, there's no striking in grappling. Instead, contestants try to defeat their opponents using wrestling, judo, jiujitsu and other submission techniques. P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S P H O T O | M E G H A N K E I L Kipp Kollar stands in front of a bench press at his home gym in Marlborough, where he also runs the North American Grappling Association, which made $3.8 million in revenues last year. At age 50, Kipp Kollar still competes in NAGA events.

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