Craig Jones wanted to take a stand against the sport of jiu jitsu.
That meant withdrawing from the most prestigious tournament the discipline has to offer: Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC), which is being staged this weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Instead, Jones created his own “Invitational” across town at Thomas & Mack Center, jacking up fighter purses to attract top talent.
Safe to say the people behind ADCC were not pleased with his decision.
“Unfortunately to make a stand against the sport I had to go head-to-head with ADCC, which meant I had to go head-to-head with UFC [305],” Jones said after the show. “I’ve had death threats from ADCC, from the organizer. It’s crazy. I don’t even think that event is worth talking about. They’re over there fighting for breadcrumbs.”
Jones was fed up with the paltry payouts from ADCC and managed to raise a boatload of cash for his two-day tourney. ADCC purses have not changed in several years, despite empty promises from no-gi “King” Gordon Ryan after the 2022 competition.
“My goal for the sport is to get athletes paid and to make the sport mainstream,” Ryan wrote on Instagram back in 2022. “It’s not ADCC’s job to pay more, they’ve done more than enough. We need bigger sponsors, more eyes, more everything. This next ADCC I want winners making $50-100k to only compete, and I want to be making [$1 million] to compete and a [$2 million] weekend. This is just the beginning and I am happy that I’m leading the charge to true professionalism.”
The top payout at ADCC 2024 was $40,000, according to the official website.
By comparison, Jones handed out two, $1 million grand prizes to his top winners (like Nicky Rod). He also managed to sell out the Thomas & Mack Center on his second night of action. Not bad for an event that was cooked up just three months earlier.
“Really, I don’t think it could have gone any better,” Jones continued. “I think all the matches were exciting, the crowd was intense. We went head-to-head with an event that’s been selling tickets for two years. We still did really good — sellout now for Saturday night. I think it will be the most viewed grappling event in history.”
And everyone lived to tell about it.