CJI 2: Why the World’s Best Jiu Jitsu Still Leaves Fans Wanting More
Reflections on the event’s impact on Jiu Jitsu and hopes for CJI 3
As an obsessive Jiu Jitsu nerd and guy who created this blog around the subject, I’d be remiss if I didn’t write a piece about the most anticipated grappling tournament of the year.
The first Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) captured lightning in a bottle. Going head to head with the prestigious ADCC, Craig Jones put on one hell of an event where the highest prize money for a Jiu Jitsu competition ever was awarded to both Nicky Rod and Kade Ruotolo — a staggering $1 million USD each.
Changing the very nature of what a Jiu Jitsu event could be, CJI was full of upsets, enthralling matches and a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humour synonymous with Craig Jones, as he overcame the might of Gabi Garcia to become Jiu Jitsu’s first ever inter-gender champion.
As the capacity crowd started to wind down at the end of the second day back in 2024, the arena lights went up to reveal Craig Jones stood in the middle of the pit. He asked one question; “shall we do this again?”.
The bar was set. Would CJI 2 be able to reproduce the same magic?
Well, kinda.
Adopting the famous Quintet format from Japan this year over a single man elimination tournament, the second CJI would pit eight of the best teams in Jiu Jitsu in an action packed, submission-only, double elimination competition for the $1 million prize.
With forty of the most elite, dangerous grapplers on the planet across teams such as New Wave, B-Team, Australasia and Atos in an absolute bracket (meaning no weight classes) promised to deliver some thrilling moments.
And it did. Kinda.
The Quintet format ensured uncertainty, with the matches not being pre-defined and involving strategy from equally world-class coaches picking their competitor on the spot. In 2023, the B-Team Bulls actually won a Quintet tournament in Las Vegas. Against 10th Planet in the final, Craig Jones himself took his team to victory after securing back to back submissions including a saucy between-the-legs toe hold on Richie Martinez.
Excitement was high, probably too high. Because after day one of CJI 2, it seemed people weren’t very happy. Come the conclusion of the event on day two, even more people weren’t happy. People are so unhappy, the arguments on Instagram and Reddit are still going strong.
It turns out, when you put the world’s best grapplers against each other, the level of skill is so elevated that it can become impossible to submit each other within eight minutes of match time. Combined with the stakes being so high, the gamesmanship and strategy at play resulted in a rather lacklustre first day of matches as grapplers were trying to survive rather than win, often prioritising not losing in order to eliminate the opposition's strongest athletes.
After a year or so of hype building, I understand the disappointment.
In 2019, Lachlan Giles made his legendary ADCC absolute run. After being eliminated early in his 77kg bracket, Giles entered the absolute division on a whim and created some of the most famous Jiu Jitsu lore — submitting Kaynan Duarte, Patrick Gaudio and Mahamed Aly via heel hook. All three blokes weighed in the range of 99 - 110kg, each scalp earning Giles a bronze medal, and the hearts of thousands.
A true David and Goliath story; cementing the belief that the small guy can come out on top, and that the right skillset can bring down monsters masquerading as men.
This is true. However as we all learned from CJI 2, it is very, very rare.
I think this is where a lot of the disappointment stems from. Especially as part of CJI was an attempt to bring the average person’s eyes to our sport with the promise of high-octane matches, and submission after submission.
But the truth is, Jiu Jitsu is not a mainstream, spectator friendly sport. It’s one of those activities you have to be familiar with to truly understand. The spectators are practitioners.
I can’t watch competitive chess because I don’t know what the fuck is going on.
They can rook to E5 all they want, it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to me. I can watch Magnus Carlsen lose his shit after being beaten by a 19 year old Indian phenom and have no idea what happened or why it was so important. I understand that the best person lost, but without a deep understanding of the game myself I don’t know where he went wrong, or where Gukesh went right. I cannot get excited.
Football, though, for all of the nuance, skill and strategy that a die-hard fan will lament over, the average person can still enjoy the beautiful game because at its core it's simple and easy to understand. Man kick ball in big square. Enough balls in square = win. Yay! It’s coming home.
Jiu Jitsu is in a catch-22. For the sport to grow and become more spectator friendly, we need more people to practice it so they understand what’s happening. But we need exciting matches so people are inspired to begin training.
Two elite black belts making micro adjustments in half guard for six minutes does not elicit the same response as Ronaldinho rocketing a perfect, curling free kick into the back of the net for the regular Joe.
So after day one with most matches being declared draws, no hands raised or devastating submissions for the crowd to get behind, the wind seemed to exit the sails and people were left frustrated.
But that’s the thing, most Jiu Jitsu matches are like that. They can’t all be Kade Ruotolo v Andrew Tackett, or Lachlan’s ‘19 run.
With the outcries from the masses listened to, Craig Jones got on the blower with his anonymous investor and organised a $50k bonus for each and every submission on day two of the men’s tournament. As a result we had a much more interesting second day, with the athletes clearly picking up the pace in the hunt for a sub, and we were treated to some very exciting matches.
This was not the end of the controversy.
The longstanding rivalry between B-Team and New Wave was set to be quashed in the final. Years in the making, everyone was excited to see how the two most famous teams in Jiu Jitsu would finally stack up against each other.
As expected, every match was close, with none of them ending in a submission. B-Team were awarded the victory after the final match was used as the deciding factor after judges ruled a draw on points.
The wording of the rules was brought up, and Craig’s investor would later award New Wave $1m too, probably to avoid any potential lengthy legal proceedings.
Do I think B-Team won? Yes. Every single team duel up to that point had used the combined scores to decide a winner when there were no submissions. The event held multiple rules meetings and coaches were clear.
Do I think the written rules were confusing? Yup. I think it was a grave error in not double checking or proof-reading the ruleset to avoid this type of situation, and if they were followed to the letter (individual wins) instead of how they had been applied through the entire tournament, New Wave deserved the prize.
Anyway, there are many people with many opinions of the above point, and I don’t want to be another voice in that messy pile.
I thought the event was fantastic. Craig was never going to ‘beat’ the inaugural CJI. He managed to put on an event for us to watch for free (another controversy which I can’t be arsed to get into) with the best grapplers on Earth.
The lack of submissions was a shame, especially with some of the crazy weight mismatches we were treated to, but the level of Jiu Jitsu on display was incredible.
The women’s bracket was brilliant, with Helena Crevar sealing her 1st place and $100k with an ankle lock over the impressive Sarah Galvao. The girls saved day one in my opinion, and proved that women’s Jiu Jitsu is very much worth watching just as much as the blokes.
As a filthy leg locker myself, watching Chris Wojcik go up against Sydney local Lucas Kennard was a wet dream. The technical mastery was captivating, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for an ankle to break, conflicted between cheering on my favourite grappler and wanting guys from my scene to perform well.
Craig Jones vs. Chael Sonnen was a hilarious bout, and provided us with a humorous break from the intensity of the main tournament. Chael saving the day after a last minute pullout of Gable Steveson put up a valiant effort for about fifteen seconds before Craig put him to sleep twice via buggy choke.
Renato Laranja gave us some of the most awkward interviews ever put on film, alongside Philip Rowe who seemed to be weirdly attracted to touching the shoulder of every person he talked to, for way too long.
Seeing Mica Galvao look human for the first time was also a surprise. Many people were hyping him up to staunch entire teams by himself, however the skill level from all competitors showed maybe he’s not as invincible as we first thought.
Dorian Olivarez proved again to the world he’s an absolute mongrel and someone to keep an eye on in the coming years. Throwing Felipe Pena around the pit despite the huge weight difference stunned everyone, once he gets his submission game dialled in that kid is going to take some heads.
Giancalo Bodoni put on a masterclass of clinical, technical Jiu Jitsu against Ronaldo Junior with stunning back takes and a beautiful arm bar finish. Read a great breakdown of this particular match from Simon over at Living as a Grappler here.
Belal Etiabari was a stand out. After submitting Geo Martinez and a contested tap, his foot was later broken by Kyle Boehm in a later round on day one. Initially withdrawing from the second day, he showed true warrior spirit by competing anyway, squaring off against the mammoth Victor Hugo. A true badass and deserving of every single new fan he gained that weekend, including myself.
But for me, the MVP of the entire event came in the form of a small, yet dense Japanese man named Kenta Iwamoto.
If you’ve been involved in the BJJ scene for a while, you probably know of Kenta. A three time ADCC trials winner, the kid seems to get exponentially better with every competition and is one of the most exciting grapplers to watch.
Replacing last year’s finalist, Levi Jones-Leary in the Australasia team, Kenta showed a Samurai level of grit and determination. Taking on his training partner Nicky Rod in the semi-finals, he came at him with the force of a thousand suns and gave him a good run for his money, almost submitting him with a belly down ankle lock, escaping an arm bar, and shooting double leg takedowns right until the last second.
Kenta also did something so unprecedented, he may have changed the Jiu Jitsu meta forever; debuting a new technique on the biggest stage in the world in the midst of the most important match of his career.
The Hog Lock.
As Kenta commenced his onslaught of dawg-jitsu against the formidable Rod, he entered a leg entanglement. Nicky is a slippery bloke and began to wiggle out of the position. Kenta, realising he might lose his best shot of submitting the behemoth, adjusted his grip around Nicky’s ankle by grabbing his own penis.
It was genius, effective and kinda hot.
It secured his grip and by extending his body, was able to turn belly down and almost finish Rod in what would have been the biggest upset of the year. Kenta, with that move alone, you have immortalised yourself as a legend.
In conclusion, I loved CJI 2. The rule ambiguity, stalling, Brazilian taps and Renato’s outdated humour may have put a slight stain on the event, but what good show is without controversy?
Craig Jones (and Seth) has done so much for Jiu Jitsu whether you’re a fan of his or not. In my short time practicing the art, his influence on me and my enjoyment of the sport is undeniable. He raised a shitload of money for charity, built a brand new Jiu Jitsu school for kids in Ethiopia and helped the Ukraine war effort against Russian ogres.
I wish Craig the best as he takes a step back from the scene, and sincerely hope we see him again soon, healthy and rejuvenated. I pray the negativity from the loudest haters has not put him off for good. Jiu Jitsu needs Craig Jones like single seater chairs need Gordon Ryan.
If there is a CJI 3, I will damn well be watching it like I have the previous two; with a big spliff, good food and a bunch of mates from the gym.