On 1 December 2024 Manitoba brought amateur jiu-jitsu under a combative sports commission. Competitors now need a licence to enter a tournament. A year later, an access-to-information request established what the province had collected and where it went. The answer is the reason school owners in other jurisdictions should be paying attention.
What Manitoba actually did
The Combative Sports Amendment Act, S.M. 2023, c. 31, received royal assent on 30 May 2023 and was proclaimed in force on 1 December 2024, together with the Combative Sports Regulation, M.R. 124/2024. The Manitoba Combative Sports Commission’s mandate, which had covered professional boxing and MMA, now extends to designated amateur combative sports: MMA, kickboxing, Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu. Amateur boxing remains with the Manitoba Amateur Boxing Association.
The government’s case for it was safety and legality. Minister of Sport, Culture, Heritage and Tourism Nellie Kennedy said the new regulations would “unlock new levels of competition, safety and fun for mixed martial arts, kickboxing, Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu.” For the first time, amateur contests in those disciplines could be legally hosted under a sanctioning framework.
The fee, and where it went
Under section 6(2) of the regulation an amateur contestant licence costs C$30 a year; a professional licence is C$40. From January 2025, that applied to every jiu-jitsu competitor entering a sanctioned event in the province.
In October 2025, Radio-Canada obtained the figures through a provincial access-to-information request and published them on 29 October. The commission had collected C$9,540 from 318 athletes.
None of it went back into the sport. In a letter dated 9 October 2025, Minister Kennedy stated that the commission “has no authority to redistribute the fees to third parties.” The money funds commission administration. Community organisers say that is not what was indicated when the framework was being introduced.
Nine and a half thousand dollars is not a large sum. That is rather the point: it is too small to matter to a provincial budget and large enough to feel like a toll to a sport that was already running its own tournaments.
The regulation is more flexible than the reaction suggested
Early alarm in the grappling community held that Manitoba had locked all jiu-jitsu to a single rule set. The text is more accommodating than that, and a school owner reading about this from another jurisdiction should know it.
| Provision | What it says |
|---|---|
| Section 80(1) | Jiu-jitsu contests must follow the IBJJF Rules Book and General Competition Guidelines, as amended from time to time. |
| Section 80(2) | The commission may approve an event plan that varies from 80(1) where the variation does not compromise contestant safety. |
| Section 6(2) | Amateur contestant licence C$30 per year; professional C$40. |
So sub-rules, alternative scoring and different uniform requirements are available — on application, in advance, with a safety case. That is a real administrative burden for a small promoter. It is not a ban on anything but IBJJF.
Why this is a United States story
Athletic commissions in most states already license professional MMA and boxing. The direction of travel is toward amateur events: medicals, competitor licences, promoter requirements and a designated rule set. Manitoba is a working example of what that looks like once it arrives.
Two consequences matter for a school that runs its own in-house tournament or an open.
Sanctioning becomes a question you can be asked. Manitoba schools were formally notified in 2025 that hosting unsanctioned combative events can create Criminal Code exposure and can void insurance. Whatever the legal position where you are, “who sanctioned this event” is a question that did not used to be asked of a grappling tournament and increasingly is.
Fees are set once and rarely revisited. A C$30 licence is trivial per athlete. A licence requirement applied to every competitor at every event, funding an administrative body with no obligation to return value to the sport, is a permanent structural change introduced at a price nobody objected to.
If a “combative sports modernisation” bill appears in your state or province, three things are worth asking for in writing while the drafting is still open: a seat at the table for the grappling community, a published fee schedule with a stated purpose, and an explicit variance mechanism so amateur events can run non-IBJJF rules where safety is equivalent. Manitoba got the third of those. It is the one worth having.
Frequently asked questions
Do jiu-jitsu competitors in Manitoba need a licence?
Yes. Since the Combative Sports Regulation came into force on 1 December 2024, amateur jiu-jitsu is a designated combative sport under the Manitoba Combative Sports Commission, and competitors need an amateur contestant licence costing C$30 a year to enter sanctioned events.
How much has Manitoba collected in jiu-jitsu licence fees?
C$9,540 from 318 athletes, according to figures obtained by Radio-Canada through a provincial access-to-information request and published on 29 October 2025. In a letter dated 9 October 2025, the Minister stated that the commission has no authority to redistribute the fees to third parties.
Must Manitoba jiu-jitsu events use IBJJF rules?
By default yes — section 80(1) of the regulation adopts the IBJJF Rules Book and General Competition Guidelines. But section 80(2) allows the commission to approve an event plan that varies from those rules where the variation does not compromise contestant safety. Sub-rules and alternative formats are available on application.
Could this happen in the United States?
State athletic commissions already license professional boxing and MMA, and several have been extending oversight toward amateur events. Manitoba shows the shape it takes: competitor licences, event sanctioning, a designated rule set and a fee that funds the regulator rather than the sport. Schools that host their own opens should expect the sanctioning question eventually.
Related reading
Sources, and what we could not confirm
Primary sources: The Combative Sports Amendment Act, S.M. 2023, c. 31; the Combative Sports Regulation, M.R. 124/2024, including sections 6(2) and 80(1)–(2), as published by the Province of Manitoba; the Manitoba government news release carrying Minister Kennedy’s quotation; and Radio-Canada’s 29 October 2025 report of figures obtained by access-to-information request.
Claims we did not print. Two figures circulating with this story could not be sourced and are omitted: a comparison of licences issued against unique athletes at a 2025 tournament, and the assertion that Manitoba was the fifth Canadian province to regulate amateur combat sports. Neither appears in the government release or in the reporting we could verify. If either is documented, we will add it.
This is reporting, not legal advice. If you promote events, take advice in your own jurisdiction on sanctioning and insurance before relying on anything here.
Corrections. See our editorial policy.
