Drugged In Colombia, Escaping Jail & Defeating UFC Wrestling - Craig Jones

Craig Jones is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete, owner of B-Team and Founder of the Craig Jones Invitational. From wild nights in Medellín to ketamine trips with Ethiopian locals, Craig Jones has turned his life into a world of fun and chaos. From rolling with legends, clowning on traditions, and building a jiu-jitsu empire that’s as unorthodox as it is elite, Craig proves every day that you can be world-class without following the old playbook. Expect to learn what happened to Craig Jones while in Colombia, what it was like meeting Pablo Escobar’s sister, why Craig Jones was in Ethiopia and doing ketamine with the locals, why Craig got an MS13 Tattoo and why he subsequently went missing for a while, the biggest updates from the world of BJJ, UFC, and wrestling, Craigs thoughts on Greg Souders, Jon Jones & Gordon Ryan and much more… - 00:00 The First Craig Jones Invitational 03:41 Meeting Pablo Escobar’s Sister 05:52 Getting Drugged in Colombia 13:15 Charity Work in Ethiopia 24:30 Trying Ketamine With the Locals 27:07 Why Craig Got Arrested in Bali 30:28 Building a School in Peru 34:14 Exploring the Favelas in Brazil 38:20 Adventures in Venezuela 46:55 The Second Craig Jones Invitational 55:06 The Fallout From ADCC 59:14 Making Grappling More Exciting 1:04:25 Reuniting With John Danaher 1:08:37 Future Ambitions of CJI 1:11:49 Craig’s Thoughts on Greg Souders 1:14:59 Cornering in UFC 1:18:29 Building Up Confidence in Fighting 1:20:58 The Past & Future of Grappling 1:26:22 Craig’s Training 1:27:21 What’s Next for Craig? - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic here - https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Chris WilliamsonhostCraig Jonesguest

Jun 5, 20251h 28mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Craig Jones: Wild Global Adventures, Dark Realities, And Saving Jiu-Jitsu

Craig Jones recounts a year of extreme travel and experiences, from being drugged in Colombia and nearly collapsing in Medellín to witnessing brutal tribal rituals and poverty in Ethiopia and Peru.
Alongside the chaos, he details his growing charity work with the Guardian program, building jiu-jitsu schools and safe spaces for at-risk kids in places like Ethiopia, Peru, and Venezuela.
Jones explains his ambitions for CJI 2, a $1M team grappling event designed to rival ADCC, make jiu-jitsu more spectator-friendly, and prevent big organizations from monopolizing the sport.
He also discusses defeating wrestling in MMA strategy, reconciling with coach John Danaher, the business dynamics of Flow Grappling, and his vision for blending WWE-style storytelling with real grappling.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Travel to unstable regions carries real, often invisible risks.

Jones’ Medellín scopolamine incident and Venezuela off-grid stint show how quickly things can go wrong—even for experienced travelers—highlighting the need for trusted locals, security awareness, and strict limits on partying in high-risk areas.

Effective charity work requires strong local partners and realistic expectations.

His work with the Guardian program in Ethiopia and Peru underscores that impact depends on vetted local leaders, anti-corruption navigation, and acknowledging that you can transform specific pockets of a community, not entire countries overnight.

Storytelling is as critical as technique for growing niche sports.

Jones argues that grappling can match WWE or big MMA events in excitement if promoters invest heavily in narrative, rivalries, and spectacle—CJI’s pits, team formats, and personality-driven promotion are designed exactly for that.

Monopolies in combat sports reduce athlete leverage and innovation.

He’s openly trying to prevent a single streaming or promotion giant from locking athletes into restrictive contracts, believing competition between platforms (Flow, ONE, UFC Fight Pass, CJI) is what forces better pay, rulesets, and production.

In MMA, confidence built on real safety nets changes performance.

By giving fighters like Volkanovski and Jack Della robust grappling backstops, Jones helps them strike more freely; fear of the ground game diminishes once athletes trust their ability to survive, scramble, and stand back up.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Anything’s exciting if there’s a storyline.

— Craig Jones

If you haven’t visited Africa, you don’t understand the scale of that continent.

— Craig Jones

I failed as an athlete, so the pivot would be as a promoter.

— Craig Jones

More fights have been lost due to under-confidence than overconfidence.

— Craig Jones

If fake grappling is one of the most entertaining things in the world, WWE, why can real grappling not be that?

— Craig Jones

Colombian benders, scopolamine drugging, and meeting Pablo Escobar’s sisterEthiopian tribal rituals, female genital mutilation, and child povertyGuardian program and building jiu-jitsu schools in Peru, Ethiopia, and beyondExperiences in Brazil, favelas, ketamine goat-herder episode, and Venezuela travelNomadic lifestyle, risk-taking abroad, tattoos, and personal anticsCreation and format of CJI 2, team event structure, and Flow Grappling partnershipBeating wrestling in MMA, coaching UFC fighters, and future of professional grappling

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