Competition details | |
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Discipline | Submission grappling |
Type | Yearly |
Organiser | Craig Jones |
Divisions | |
Current weight divisions |
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History | |
First winner | Nick Rodriguez (over 80kg) Kade Ruotolo (under 80kg) Helena Crevar (openweight) |
The Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) is an international submission grappling tournament organized by Craig Jones.
The inaugural tournament was held August 16–17, 2024 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States. [1] [2] The event was streamed live on YouTube for free. [3] Nick Rodriguez won the 80kg+ division, and Kade Ruotolo won the −80kg division. The winner in each weight division received $1 million prize money.
The Craig Jones Invitational 2 (CJI 2) was held August 30–31, 2025, returning to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. [4] CJI 2 featured a team-based grappling tournament won by The B-Team, an openweight women's tournament won by Helena Crevar, and a non-tournament superfight which saw Craig Jones defeat Chael Sonnen.
Craig Jones from B-Team Jiu-Jitsu is a two-time ADCC silver medalist. Disappointed with athlete pay at ADCC, he decided to host a tournament in which all invited athletes receive a higher minimum payout ($10,001) than the male winner of ADCC ($10,000). [5]
The two men's divisions scheduled for the 2024 tournament were under 80kg and over 80kg, and the winner of each bracket was to be awarded $1 million. Each men's division bracket had 16 competitors. Each participant received $10,001 for competing. [6]
On JRE MMA Show No. 157, an episode of Joe Rogan's podcast, Jones brought $1 million in cash to promote the tournament. [7]
A best submission bonus of $50,000 was announced. [8]
The dates and location were selected to overlap with ADCC 2024, which was held August 17–18, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Separate from the men's divisions, Craig Jones was scheduled to face Gabi Garcia in an intergender superfight, and Ffion Davies was scheduled to fight Mackenzie Dern in the women's superfight. [9] A superfight with Mikey Musumeci was also announced, [10] but ultimately did not occur due to a lack of a contractual agreement with Musumeci's planned opponent. [11] Mason Fowler was scheduled to fight in the over 80kg bracket but later withdrew from the competition due to injury. [12] [13]
First Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | Winner |
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First Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | Winner |
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The event raised $500,000 for Tap Cancer Out charity. [19] The event's free YouTube stream was seen by over 100,000 concurrent viewers on both days of competition. [20]
The Craig Jones Invitational won both the Promotion of the Year and Fight Card of the Year awards at the 2024 Jits Magazine BJJ Awards. Kade Ruotolo vs. Andrew Tackett from the event's −80kg tournament won Jits Magazine's Match of the Year award. [21]
On December 8, 2024, Craig Jones announced a second Craig Jones Invitational tournament to be held in August 2025, with the 2025 tournament adopting a Quintet-inspired team format. [4] The event will stream for free on the FloGrappling YouTube channel.
The Craig Jones Invitational 2 (CJI 2) is scheduled for August 30-31, 2025 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. CJI 2 is a two-day event, featuring an eight team tournament, an openweight women's tournament, and a superfight between Jones and Chael Sonnen (replacing an injured Gable Steveson). A total of 46 athletes are scheduled to compete at the event.
Teams in the $1 million team-based grappling tournament will consist of five grapplers, each representing a different weight class. Eight teams of five athletes will compete; participating teams are: Team 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, The B-Team, Team New Wave, Team Atos, Team Europe, Team Pedigo Submission Fighting, Team Americas, and Team Australasia.
The $100,000 four-woman tournament will feature: Helena Crevar (Polaris and WNO Champion), Adele Fornarino (2024 ADCC double gold medalist), Ana Vieira (2024 ADCC Champion, 6x IBJJF World Champ), and Sarah Galvão (2025 IBJJF Grand Slam Winner). [22]
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||
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Semifinals | Final | ||||||||
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