New Format, More Details On CJI 2 Revealed – BJJ Beat [UPDATED]

Get up to date on all the biggest news from the grappling scene.

Welcome to the BJJ Beat! On this recurring feature, we’ll tackle the biggest news from the professional grappling scene, and roll everything up in an easily digestible and familiar jiu-jitsu format.

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Warm Ups

CJI 2 moves to team vs. team tournament format for 2025

The second Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) event was previously announced for August 2025, which also teased a major format change. More details have since been announced, with CJI 2 instead having their million dollar tournament moving to a similar style as Kazushi Sakuraba’s “Quintet” promotion.

“Grappling is boring. Stalling is boring. People being afraid to be submitted is boring. For CJI 2, we’re mixing this up,” Craig Jones said on his announcement. “We’re going to do 8 teams battling for a million dollars.

“Last time we found out who the two best athletes in the world were. That was Kade Ruotolo and Nicky Rod, and we paid them both a million,” Jones said. “Now we’re gonna find out who is the best team in the world. ATOS, New Wave, B-Team, Checkmat, Gracie Barra, 10th Planet, whatever teams, and let’s see who truly is the best team in the world. Quintet-style, last man standing.”

Jones, who faced Gabi Garcia in a friendly inter-gender match at CJI 1, also teased his participation in the event.

“Team vs team is the most exciting form of grappling and that’s what is gonna be the bulk of this show, but we’re also going to have a few crazy super-fights,” he said. “I won’t be fighting a woman this time, although the guy has many feminine attributes, but that has yet to be announced. CJI 2, Team vs. Team.”

UPDATE: More details have been revealed about CJI 2. While Quintet created groups like “Team Polaris” with various stars from different gyms, Craig Jones says CJI 2 won’t allow “super teams” and will have “real teams only.”

Teams will be composed of five members each, and “each team will have one wildcard draft pick.” Team members will also be from various weight classes, similar to what ADCC uses: 66 kg, 77 kg, 88 kg, 99 kg and +99kg.

Jones, who likes to poke fun at his former teammates, hilariously included New Wave on the potential list of teams in his announcement. It seems more than likely that the Gordon Ryan and John Danaher backed team would again boycott the event like they did the first CJI. It’s also worth pointing out that Craig Jones and his team already has experience in this format, as the “B-Team Bulls” won Quintet 4 in 2023. B-Team previously fielded a line up with Jones, Nick Rodriguez, Jay Rodriguez, Nicky Ryan, and Jozef Chen.

Quintet’s team grappling events has always been an entertaining format, as it adds team strategies and almost guarantees fun outcomes by matching up people on different sizes. One of the best things in Quintet events is the chance to see a few BJJ stars wipe out multiple opponents or even entire teams. Combine that with the top talent coming in due to the $1 million prize, plus the CJI alley (or pit) that encourages continued action, and this show already seems primed to produce a lot of entertainment.

My only gripe would be that while team grappling almost guarantees fun outcomes, it’s the traditional tournament format that determines the best of the best with a single winner. Perhaps CJI is only doing this in 2025 since there won’t be an ADCC until 2026, but permanently departing from that format would leave their rival promotion as pretty much the sole organization that will — at least in theory — determine the best grapplers in the world.

It remains to be seen if there will be a women’s tournament for this event, but Ffion Davies was previously involved in a super-fight at the inaugural CJI event, where she dominated UFC star Mackenzie Dern. Should they choose to go the same route, the biggest match up CJI can book from a sporting perspective is a super-fight against Adele Fornarino, who exploded as a star at ADCC 2024 by winning double gold as the smallest competitor. Davies and Fornarino were among the biggest standouts from that same CJI vs ADCC weekend and are the consensus two top pound-for-pound female grapplers today. From a pure BJJ standpoint, it is definitely the match up to book.

Speaking of Fornarino…

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Drills

Adele Fornarino advocates for better pay, ditches IBJJF no gi worlds

There were a few big names missing from the recent 2024 IBJJF No Gi World Championships. ADCC and WNO champ Adele Fornarino was one of them, and she broke her silence, saying her absence was due to the absence of pay from IBJJF.

“To my core, I am a competitor. Sitting on the sidelines at this year’s No-Gi Worlds was an incredibly tough decision. Many people asked me why I didn’t compete, and I want to share my reasoning,” Fornarino wrote on Instagram.

“My theme for 2024 was professionalism. Part of being a professional athlete is knowing your worth. I have really struggled with this throughout the years, often under-valuing myself for the love of competition. I now see how detrimental that is for myself, other athletes, and future ones (especially females).

“I have deep respect for the IBJJF and their role in growing jiu-jitsu into a sport where being a ‘professional grappler’ is a real career path,” she continued. “Currently, IBJJF No-Gi Worlds offers no financial incentive for black belt athletes. The athletes who have spent a decade or more teaching classes and working side jobs to afford their competition expenses. The athletes who have dedicated their lives to their craft. The athletes who now bring eyes, money, and prestige to the major competitions. Becoming world-class isn’t free. Those who achieve that level should be appropriately rewarded for their dedication and skill.

“I want to reiterate my love of IBJJF and all they have done for this sport we all love. We would not be where we are today without them. Seeing events such as The Crown, and Gi Worlds where athletes are financially rewarded for their efforts is exciting to see but there is still progress to be made,” Fornarino explained.

“I’m not saying that I will never compete at IBJJF No-Gi Worlds or similar events, but 2024 has been a transformative year for my career, and I chose to use this moment to advocate for a positive shift—one that will benefit this generation and those to come.”

Craig Jones, Ffion Davies and others also previously advocated for the same things, even before CJI was launched as a protest to ADCC and its low pay. Seeing a similar statement from Fornarino only shows that the potential CJI berth I mentioned earlier makes even more sense.

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Move of the Day

Cole Abate rips Shinya Aoki’s knee

No Gi World Champ Cole Abate heel hooked Shinya Aoki in their recent BJJ bout. As we noted earlier, this was always a suspect match up from ONE Championship, and it ended up being pretty predictable.

Aoki, now 41 years old, was again overmatched and became resume fodder to yet another BJJ star. ONE Championship has repeatedly booked him in mismatches, where Aoki predictably lost to BJJ champions like Kade Ruotolo, Mikey Musumeci, Garry Tonon and now Abate.

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Rolls

BJJ GWOAT Bia Mesquita goes 3-0 in MMA, UFC next?

Bia Mesquita — a 16-time world champion across ADCC, IBJJF gi and no gi — is now 3-0 in her MMA career. All three bouts happened in 2024, and she closed out the year by submitting Fernanda Araujo at LFA 198.

After remaining perfect and winning all three bouts by rear naked choke, will the UFC come calling soon? Mesquita will likely want a fast track to the big leagues, as she will turn 34 in April.

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Cooldown

Polaris adapting CJI rules for future events

The biggest grappling promotion in Europe is tweaking their ruleset, with Polaris announcing that they’re taking a page off of CJI. For super-fights, Polaris will now have three five-minute rounds and a 10-point must system for judging.

Both promotions are also set to have team grappling highlighted on their next events.

Polaris Squads are back, with the promotion announcing a promising Polaris 31 event on February 8, 2025 that will host a stacked North America vs. Europe card. More grapplers will be announced soon, but the current line up is as follows:

Polaris 31 fight card

Team Europe
Jozef Chen
Mateusz Szczecinski
Owen Jones
Eoghan O’Flanagan
Santeri Lilius
Taylor Pearman

Team North America
Jacob Couch
PJ Barch
Kieran Kichuck
Jason Rau

Super-fights
Helena Crevar vs. Anabel Lopez – Polaris lightweight title

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Review

To close things out, here are other interesting BJJ stories you might have missed:

• Youngest ever IBJJF world champion! – Cassia Moura went from blue to black belt in under a year, then set a new record by winning the IBJJF No Gi World Title at just 18 years old.
• In the same event, decorated Olympic wrestling champion Helen Maroulis won her BJJ debut.
• BJJ brawl! – Wrestling champ turned pro grappler Pat Downey, who dominated Luke Rockhold at CJI, dominated all his matches (at blue belt!), only to get disqualified in the finals for getting in a brawl.
• ‘I am a rat!’ – Mikey Musumeci continued to trade barbs with Gordon Ryan about steroids.

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