At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Craig Jones Challenges ADCC With Million-Dollar Jiu-Jitsu Invitational Event
- Craig Jones joins Joe Rogan to unveil the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI), a rival no-gi grappling event scheduled the same weekend as ADCC, backed by a mysterious multimillion-dollar benefactor and structured as a nonprofit with major charitable aims.
- He details a $3M budget with $2.3M going directly to athletes, including $1M for each of two division winners and $10,001 just to show, arguing that current elite grapplers are underpaid relative to ticket sales, streaming, and production spend.
- Jones explains his plan to stream the event free on YouTube, introduce a fan-friendly rule set that bridges jiu-jitsu and MMA scoring, and experiment with an “alley” mat design inspired by Karate Combat to eliminate edge resets and force action.
- Beyond the event, they discuss steroids in grappling, training culture under John Danaher, Volkanovski’s short-notice Makhachev fight, injuries and overtraining, the economics of seminars and instructionals, and Jones’s irreverent approach to a very serious sport.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasCJI is directly challenging ADCC on pay and prestige.
Jones is running CJI the same weekend as ADCC with million‑dollar top prizes and $10,001 to show, explicitly to pressure the established “Olympics of grappling” to share more revenue with athletes instead of pouring it all into venues and production.
The event is designed as a nonprofit with significant charitable giving.
Backed by an anonymous but wealthy jiu-jitsu fan, CJI plans to donate essentially all ticket revenue to various charities—often ones chosen by the athletes themselves—while funding prize money and production from a dedicated $3M budget and sponsorships.
CJI aims to be more viewer-friendly through hybrid scoring and format tweaks.
Pre-final matches will use three five-minute rounds with judges translating traditional jiu-jitsu scoring into a 10‑point must system and open scoring, making outcomes easier to follow for MMA fans while still feeling familiar to grapplers.
The “alley” mat design removes stalling space and messy resets.
Inspired by Karate Combat, CJI will use a large 30x40 ft sunken mat with angled walls—“the alley”—so competitors can’t run off the edge, are punished for backing up, and the action proceeds without constant referee restarts.
Top athletes are already defecting from ADCC to CJI despite risks.
Names like Ffion Davies, the Tackett brothers, Nicky Ryan, Nicky Rodriguez, and Luke Rockhold have committed, and Jones says many legends and current stars are quietly asking to join, willing to risk ADCC repercussions for a realistic shot at life-changing money.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesIf jujitsu doesn’t make a profit, we might as well make it nonprofit.
— Craig Jones
Their prize money, you have to win four matches to get 10K… we’re gonna do two divisions and pay 100 times that amount of money to the division winners.
— Craig Jones
My argument is if the prize money’s there, that becomes the most prestigious event.
— Craig Jones
I don’t think you should do 365 a year… I like it when you have an event, whether you win or lose, you don’t train too much after, and you have this period where you miss training and you’re pulled back into it.
— Craig Jones
You just take what you do seriously, but you never take yourself seriously.
— Joe Rogan
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