The Craig Jones Invitational: Is this the end of the ADCC?

Episode 339: The Craig Jones Invitational vs The ADCC! One man versus the Establishment in the name of getting of getting Athletes paid and disrupting the status quo. Craig Jones is offering 1 million dollars first prize to each of 2 divisions - under 80kg and over 80kg. This is the biggest prize in the history of grappling!! Not only that he is paying $10,001 to all athletes just to show up, the ADCC only offers $10,000 if you win. Even though there is a lot of prestige around being an ADCC Champion Craig's power move is undercutting the talent pool and directly working to steal competitors across to the CJI. But how is he pulling off the greatest coup in grappling competition history?
Where is he getting Millions of Dollars from? Enter Combat Karate! There are so many different things that need to happen to run a massive production of a competition at the Thomas & Mack centre in Las Vegas! This is the battle for the future of Jiu-Jitsu as a professional sport. We will be there to see it all unfold and we will share the journey as Craig Jones looks to change the game!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

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Speaker 1: 1:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. Are you ready for the jujitsu battle promotion of our lifetime, craig Jones versus the ADCC? It's on people, it is so on, and I called it a little while back. It's an intense thing because Craig Jones is setting up his own BDCC or the Craig Jones Invitational, and he's making it pretty public and he's not afraid to challenge Mojasim and the organization in which he made his name Anti-establishment yeah, rebels from the underground. For maybe the people who are like pretty fresh to jiu-jitsu are like who the fuck are these guys? Can we just give a brief synopsis on this scenario? Who's Craig Jones?

Speaker 1: 1:53

So Craig Jones is JT's favorite grappler, fellow countryman, your mom's favorite grappler? No, I think Craig has always been a phenomenal competitor. He won Worlds at Purple Belt. He might have podiumed at Brown. He'd been disqualified a few times, unfortunately, but had a standout performance at the ADCC. When he beat Leandro Lowe, he choked him, he heel hooked him. Actually Lowe didn't tap, busted his knee, got his back, choked him and then did somewhat of a flying triangle against Murillo Santana. That was huge, yeah, it was amazing. So you know he's one of Australia's best grapplers. And don't miss the fact that he got silver. The next ADCC got silver. You know he's got silver twice now.

Speaker 1: 2:42

So he's that close to being the best grappler in the world, right, yeah, and he's had this parallel journey with Gordon Ryan in those earlier days where like… he almost tapped Gordon at EBI. Yeah, in the EBI overtime. It's the closest anyone had come to submitting Gordon, and even Gordon was a bit shook off the back of that. But so he's like easily one of the biggest celebrities in jiu-jitsu. He's probably the number one celebrity in jiu-jitsu right now. Yeah, he's like in terms of non-jiu-jitsu people.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Okay, so here's a phenomenon my mum told me oh, have you heard of this, craig Jones? I bet that hurt, bro. Of course it hurt. My mum watches the leftist ABC and he was on ABC News because he went over there to fight the Russians. He went to the Ukraine. He went to the Ukraine and said that ABC talks about it, and credit to him. That was a really good thing on his behalf, good PR.

Speaker 1: 3:38

So then ADCC is the most prestigious grappling event we know Nogi, it's a Nogi event. It's on every two years. It's been a no-gi event. It's on every two years. It's often referred to as the Olympics of grappling and it's the best grapplers from all over the world and then they're brought together and they have this male-female division, weight division. It's a pretty intense selection process. This is what people don't get. The selections have now become as hotly contested as anything, yeah, to even get there. So you know that everybody who's there is either a world champion or one of the best grapplers in the world. So there's no easy, there's no gimme matches, right? No? And moja sim, who is the son I? Unfortunately I don't know his father's name. I'll have to google he's the organizer, he's the organizer owner. He's the organizer owner, event runner.

Speaker 1: 4:26

And really, craig made his name in the ADCC. It's almost like Khabib making his name in the UFC and then retiring but then setting up his own fight organization, even though it's Eagle FC in the middle of nowhere. Imagine if he went oh, I'm going to set up the PFL and it's going to be right here in America. I'm challenging you, daniel White. Same kind of awkwardness. Yeah, but Craig is going at the ADCC, he's trying to run this tournament in August, so he's saying that he's going to put it on the same weekend. I think, right, that's what he wants to do. He wants to totally and he's that's what he wants to do. He wants to totally and he's very openly said this poach the talent from the adcc. But here's where he does something masterful, which is, to craig's credit, the king of marketing. He's going to pay them.

Speaker 1: 5:15

So craig's all about the money and this is his main beef. Craig makes more money off his celebrity and his dvd download. Like you know, he's downloadable instructionals and stuff like this celebrity endorsements. He makes like 10 times in a month or more 30 times in a month, what the ADCC would pay him to potentially damage his reputation. Right, if he goes in there and loses first round, he gets no money. Only if he beats three, four, five guys does he get 10 Gs.

Speaker 1: 5:44

He's like, why would I do that? So it's 10 g's to win, to win, otherwise you get nothing. Yeah, right, they pay for your trip, don't? They pay for your accommodation and, I think, your flights, potentially I don't know if that's which which you know was always like holy shit, they pay for your flights and that's great. Right, like in the world of jujitsu at that time, like when that came about, you're like man, that is prestigious, but now, craig's, like, we're gonna pay people 10 grand to show up 10,001, 10,001 and then a million if they win, which is obscene. Yeah, which is stupid. Dollars, which I love because it kind of proves me right. No, I don't, it's awesome, it moves the game forward.

Speaker 1: 6:23

So the proposition is this it hasn't overtaken the UFC yet. A million dollars for one fight. It hasn't overtaken the UFC yet. No, but hear me, I know what you're going to say. How many UFC fighters get a million dollars? Yeah, not all of them. Almost none. Yeah, I will say almost none. So just let's put it in context. Craig almost none. So just let's put it in context. Craig is offering over 80 kilos, under 80 kilos, so no absolute big boys and medium boys, basically no female categories, because he's a total chauvinist. He's only got so much money, um, but yeah, that's, that's pretty big. Probably cop a bit of heat for that. Yeah, well, I mean no female division, but whatever, he't care. He's not averse to a couple of videos 10K to show.

Speaker 1: 7:11

There is so many grapplers out there who would be thinking about it, because there is no jiu-jitsu competition where you can win a million dollars. But here comes the big challenge Prestige versus money. The ADCC has built its reputation over 20, 30 years. Right, it is coveted. It is one of those things where, if you win it, you're going to be making money on seminars for years to come. You know it really solidifies your reputation as a champion. Yeah, it elevates your status, your status in the game. You can get super fights, you can do all this stuff. So, even though you may not make a whole bunch of money off the tournament, it will make you money in your career. But Craig will make you money in your career. But craig is like nah, the game's changed, I got the money and I'll pay you and it seems kind of petty, but he's doing this directly to fuck with that.

Speaker 1: 8:00

The adcc, yeah, you know it and it's even on that. On that point I think the adcc is actually probably so it's in a stronger position than it's ever been in terms of the amount of people that watch the event and go to it, like the, the we went there two years ago. Yeah, the value of the event has increased year on year. Right, like it's fuck, it's a sick show, um, but my, I reckon that the, the actual value of winning the adcc is not as valuable as it once was, because in the past it was, it was the premier, no gig grappling event, whereas now we've got a bunch of great grappling events out there and you've got you do have amazing grapplers who maybe fight on who's number one or fight on um. I don't know if I can combat jujitsu or whatever. That don't get into ADCC and you can be elevated not to the same status, but you can get be elevated by winning those other titles. Yes, so I think it's. It's just it doesn't have the monopoly anymore. Um, maybe, maybe not there's.

Speaker 1: 9:02

You're right in saying there are many more ways for grapplers to get shine. No-gi grapplers and no-gi grappling is by far like the most popular in terms of growing. It's growing the fastest people wanting to know no-gi grapplers and no-gi grappling is by far like the most popular in terms of growing. It's growing the fastest people wanting to know no-gi. Right? Let's rewind a little bit.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Let's go a little bit more like origin story to this. Like Craig used to be darling boy of flow grappling and then did he, yeah, yeah, like he kind of coming up like you know, ufc fight pass, like before that, like they were, flow would build up certain people but flow decided no, gordon ryan is our champion. Yeah, that was craig was like well, fuck gordon ryan, fuck flow grappling, and was very open about that. He went from being very cool with flow grappling to being very uncool, right, this is the path and fair enough. I'm not saying this in a particularly judgment way, I'm just saying in a pattern recognition kind of way. Even if you look at Craig's rise through the B team, through DDS, he kind of surreptitiously got into DDS, made himself a part of the team more or less, and then, at a critical point when the team was kind of vulnerable and falling apart because it couldn't sustain all of the egos. Craig said to the boys fuck John, fuck them, we'll go and make our tax reduced money in Texas. Come with me, boys. And that's what happened. They made B team so it didn't suit him anymore. He moved on.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Now we talk about the ADCC. Craig built a reputation, was good friends with Mo, got very favorable treatment. B team, got good treatment, elevated his profile. The next coolest person stopped suiting him, didn't make him the money he wanted, didn't get the fame he wanted, wasn't getting the preferential treatment he wanted. See you freaking later. I'll make my own thing. And this is always the way he kind of moves himself up and up.

Speaker 1: 11:05

And this is where, potentially, if you look at how to make money in BJJ, it's being one of those large event organizers. Like, who would you want to be? Donald Cerrone or Dana White? Dana White's still making 200 million bucks a year. You know not Donald Cerrone, like you don't want to be the fighter. He's just driving fucking buggies around his ranch. He's fucking shooting animals and shit. Just driving fucking buggies around his ranch. He's riding, shooting animals and shit. He's riding. Daniel's just fucking on the clock, son, we're working over here. Fuck Kids, I don't know them. True, they're there somewhere, but I got abs. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 11:38

The reason why I say this is if you look at the path to money that's what I'm saying yeah, thing to success, where you just shit on everyone else to get to the next thing, right, and so I mastered the art of leverage, which is really what jiu-jitsu is all about. Oh oh, that was actually genius. My goodness, I'm speechless. It doesn't happen often. It's never happened. Um, that was great. You rocked me with that one. I was like bam, bam. I just had to just bask in that.

Speaker 1: 12:09

If you look at this, this is how Craig Jones sets himself up to be a millionaire for the rest of time. Right Now, all the fighters who didn't like him whether it's Philippe Penner or you know any of those Apple guys Didn't Hulk Barbosa post about it. He's like, damn, if this is legit, like I'm down to make 10 Gs. Who isn't right? Yeah, it's exciting, because now they're all sucking Craig's dick, which is what he wants. It's the power, it's the money. He doesn't give a fuck about jujitsu, he's just leveraging it to the next thing. How has he done this? Now what we've noticed recently he wants to sponsor our show. No, no, not at all. I'm not taking any craig jones money and he'll never get any money from me. So here's a deal I. But hey, we can, we can benefit from speculating across all of this.

Speaker 1: 12:57

Naturally, yeah, um, combat karate what an interesting concept, because recently I've some videos saying is the pit the ultimate grappling format? You've got these 45, for those of you not familiar with the combat karate, they've got these padded 45 degree walls, it's like matted area, and then these walls that are at 45. The pit, so you can walk up them, yeah, but you can't like stand on them, no, yeah. And so it is easier than a cage to be able to like launch someone off it or you leap off it, right, and craig, more recently, had done kind of like a flying triangle off it. Yeah, people like yo. This is actually great for grappling, because you can't roll out of bounds like if you're on the ground, which is what, uh, some jiu-jitsu folks do to avoid submissions, and you can also use it to make it more interesting, right, yeah, and you can't just take someone down off a stage, right, and then you've got to reset in a different way, like you're there. It's actually a fucking good design for grappling. It's incredibly good design.

Speaker 1: 13:56

There's been one or two video breakdowns about this. I was like how interesting, now who's got the money and the organizational wit to run a 16-man tournament? Combat karate does. Yeah, if you've not seen Combat Karate, I remember it first popped up as a YouTube ad.

Speaker 1: 14:16

I'd be watching, like I don't know, ufc Countdown or some shit on YouTube and this ad would pop up and it would be this live broadcast. It was a two-and-a-half-hour ad. This was early days YouTube advertising A two and a half hour ad. You can skip it after 10 seconds or whatever. But I'm like the fuck is this? They got Buzz Rooten in there, they got GSP commentating, and then they're bringing out these karate fighters and they're having a full contact fight and I'm like it's pretty sick. Full contact karate is no joke. And I'm like this is pretty sick, like karate, full contact karate is no joke. So it's become this. Now it's this thing, and so you can watch it on YouTube. If you've not checked it out, go have a look.

Speaker 1: 14:53

But it's a pretty cool event and they're obviously like they've obviously got plenty of funding and they're finding innovative ways to get in front of their audience, yeah, and so like, yeah, bringing Craig into the fold and going, hey, we're going to have a one-off grappling match tonight. Yeah, it's, you know who's leveraging who? Yeah, but they've started featuring grappling and you mentioned this last time we talked about it that, similar to 1FC, they've started bringing grappling in as a bigger part because there is a market for it, there's an audience for it. Yeah, so this is a little bit speculative, but I don't think Craig has the time, the energy or the interest to do all the manpower behind running an event Combat karate could do that. And what he's saying, the reason why he has money and he's done a few screenshots of the fact I've got $3 million. This isn't bullshit, I can do this. He's saying he's not spending as much on media and advertising so he can give it to the fighters, the contestants, athletes. So he would be the Dana, he would be the front man, he'd be putting it together, promoting it, promoting it, all of that, and then other people would be running the event. Yeah, you wouldn't catch Craig out there refereeing, I mean. Fuck, if it happened like the weekend after ADCC, that'd be pretty sick. It would be running the event. Yeah, you wouldn't catch Craig out there. You know refereeing. I mean fuck, if it happened like the weekend after ADCC, that would be pretty sick, it would be pretty wild. So we're going to be in Vegas at that time.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Now he did put up a post. I'll take 10 Gs to fight Hulk. Fuck it, that'll make sick YouTube content. Thomas, I need a bit more of a training camp. Well, yeah, no, I know, easy, here You're pulling on something, getting tense under the table there. I am Pulling your leg, no, so here's the thing he did post about Thomas Mack Centre. Now, that's not a cheap venue, thomas and Mack. Thomas and Mack that was where we were last ADCC, wasn't it? I don't know? Yeah, it was University of Las Vegas, yeah, okay, yeah. So you look at that. It looked like he had shelled out 700 grand, because originally he had almost $3 million in an account and then the money he posted was I've got $2,300,000 to allocate to athletes competing. So where'd the rest of that money go, because originally it was almost $3 million. Now where he got this money, I don't know, like it might've been transferred to him.

Speaker 1: 17:20

You know, I actually believe Craig is a legit millionaire. You won it at a ping pong competition in Bangkok. Yeah, he was there with the paddle and there was a lady with the bop bop, quite possible, um. But here's the thing. You know, it's interesting, I see craig being more and more of a politician. Right, here's me giving mcdonald's to homeless children in thailand, yeah, but less of the him running the streets with the uh, the baggies and the ladyboys, right, so he, he.

Speaker 1: 17:51

Clearly, I think there's a point at which he you see more and more of him doing that positive pr stuff. There's the sensational. Here's my ass, and here's me saying something crazy. Or, you know, here's something controversial to get your attention. But then, oh, here's something redeemable. Oh, he must be a good guy. You know, all psychopaths are charming, right, there's an element to it that gets you to buy in those dazzling green eyes. You look into them. You think he's not such a bad guy. He didn't just screw over every person who meant anything to him in his past. Nah, he's a legend. He's moving forward, he's moving the game forward. And frankly, ladies and gentlemen, he is, he is moving the game forward.

Speaker 1: 18:32

If Craig Jones can get a jujitsu athlete a million dollars, that gives jujitsu a future. That's crazy, that's legitimate. No one is doing that Now. Obviously it may ensure his own fame, his own earnings. But that could be your kid. If you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I wouldn't want to put my kid into jiu-jitsu, they'll just turn into a broke mat rat. There's a chance to make a million bucks. That's legitimacy. Yeah, if you get them on the juice and the nose beers early the Craig Jones stack I could be a millionaire. Yeah, that's the thing. They're legalizing cocaine. And so if you go to Evertitan and just use discount code BDCC, you can get 10% off. No, it's super interesting and that's why I wanted to talk about it, because this is possibly the most significant shift. Like, let's go sideways for a second. Let's go to the Gi.

Speaker 1: 19:28

When the Abu Dhabi Pro came out and this is like you know, whatever, 14, 15 years ago, they were paying athletes to win. You could make like $1,000 or something. Yeah, $1,000 or two grand if you won at Purple Belt or Brown Belt Jiu-Jitsu athletes are going mental. And then you'd win a trip to yeah, you get to go to abu dhabi and stay in a mad hotel. And yeah, yeah, that was like revolutionary. Well, yeah, you all, we all you had prior to that was just, you're on some basketball court. Yeah, fighting for a shit medal, yeah. And then now it's like, hey, we'll give you a thousand dollars and you get a fucking flight to the other side of the world and and meet your heroes photos, yeah, yeah, pretty impressive, right. And so each stage in the game it's kind of improved.

Speaker 1: 20:15

And here's the shocking thing which most people probably don't appreciate Only if you are an IBJJF, like black belt, world champion will they comp you your entry fee. Oh right, everyone pays. No, everyone pays. Yeah, right, right, carlinhos Gracie. You know, carlos Gracie Jr, he's getting that money, even if you came third. You're Victor Esteema, you got a bronze medal. You're going to pay me, buddy. Yeah, that's crazy, right.

Speaker 1: 20:43

So this, I believe now, now I don't know if he can pull it off. I kind of not that. I want to destroy. I don't want to see the ADCC fall down. I know so many people work so long and so hard to try and it's a fucking sick event. It's amazing, right, we're going to be there, we're excited for it. I don't want it to fuck up, but how interesting would it be?

Speaker 1: 21:05

And this is what I believe craig jones needs to do. He needs to get four big names across. He needs two over 80 kilo guys to come across, and he needs two significant under 80 kilo guys to come across. So, for example, if he could get a rotolo, if he could get fabrizio andre, if he could get mereng, if he could get some other big rig what's his name? Who just beat Kynan, luke Griffith, if he could get Luke Griffith, which I think he can Well done, by the way, yeah, shout out. But imagine he could get Nicky Ryan. You know, craig can get his whole team there.

Speaker 1: 21:41

I'm not sure about Nicky Ryan, because Nicky Ryan's already said oh, I really want to win the ADCC, bro, come on, don't put this pressure on me. That fucks up the ADCC's roster. It really does, because it also is a vote of no confidence from the athletes to go make the money. So, yeah, I mentioned at the start that I was under the impression that he tried to put it on on the same day, but actually I don't think that would make sense. Right, because on the same day. But actually I don't think that would make sense. Right, because surely it's like you couldn't get spectators. No, that's right.

Speaker 1: 22:09

So, and it would make sense if you did it the weekend after, or something that the athletes, that almost all the athletes would probably back it up and go fuck you, I'll jump in seven days later and a lot of the fans would be like I'll stick around in vegas for a second another week. Yeah, like we, we'd find a way to do that, right For sure, craig, just letting you know like we'd love to be there, and so in that way, I think that there's no reason why he couldn't just get everyone Like if, do you know what I mean? Or could he go the weekend before and then people are not injured and whatever. But that's the thing. He even made the post saying look, hey, you've never had to be on a contract before. Now, if mo's hitting you with a contract, I would be wary. Yeah, don't sign the contract. I mean, I don't.

Speaker 1: 22:54

I don't think, like we were saying earlier um, he doesn't have the pull yet to go like, hey, do my event first. I think it's like no, I can't. Adcc is still the thing, yeah, but if he could get him after, and then maybe, like now he's got a foot in the door, yeah, and then next year, hey guys, prize money's gone up, how about you do my event first? Like he's got a bit of leverage, yeah, I think it is difficult. The first time you do anything right, yeah. So I wouldn't expect Craig to be successful. It's a lot, lot of money on the line for just a first off right.

Speaker 1: 23:26

But he is coming for the crown. He is saying I am the new king of jujitsu organization comp, I'll pay you. And what athlete could resist that? Tell me, joey, you, you come out retirement for the time. I think, yeah, I think I'd put the gloves back on, jump back in the ring, give me that mouth mouthpiece. Let's I don't know just inject something into this knee, giddy up All of it. What can Falastatin do for me? Gene editing let's go. So it's exciting, my friends. Obviously, updates as we go, but it needs to be talked about because this is an inflection point in jujitsu history. Let's see how it plays. Boom, boom. Hey guys, make sure you like the show. Give us five star review. All that helps us support the thing and get this in front of more people, just like you.