At least it wasn’t a death threat.
Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) will return for a second tournament in 2025.
After running CJI 1 last August and going head-to-head with Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) in Las Vegas, Jones is hoping to expand his jiu jitsu competition in his sophomore effort while also implementing a “massive format change” for next August.
ADCC darling Gordon Ryan, who continues to battle Jones on social media, was unimpressed by the announcement of CJI 2 and believes his longtime rival is using the tournament to serve himself instead of the grappling community.
“Not here to argue or anything, just like to pop in occasionally to point out blatant lies by the morality police,” Ryan wrote on Instagram. “Can’t win a [competition] Craig’s entire ‘reason’ for throwing CGI on the same day as ADCC was because he ‘wanted athletes to get paid more,’ so he had to do it the same day. He stated [on Joe Rogan podcast] that if ADCC would have upped the prize money, he wouldn’t have done the same date, except he never told ADCC or made it public that those were the conditions, he just made it up.”
“In addition to saying he was doing this because he cared about athletes, he just didn’t even give enough of a f*ck to even have women’s divisions lol he thinks so little of the women’s half of the sport that he didn’t even have a place for them,” Ryan continued. “He could have easily added two women’s divisions and split the prize, but didn’t. So now, he has apparently raised money for a second event, which will be in August.”
“So my question is, if you’re doing this because you care so much about the athletes, why wouldn’t you do this event on the same day as GI Worlds?” Ryan added. “With ADCC having an off year, this is a perfect time to go after IBJJF for not paying athletes. ADCC has paid athletes since its inception, losing 10’s of millions of dollars in the last 30 years. IBJJF has only recently started paying athletes and has been making millions, if not 10s of millions a year for decades.”
ADCC is expected to return in late 2026.
“So, if this wasn’t a personal vendetta, and you’re really doing this for the athletes and to stick it to the big establishments who aren’t paying enough, why on earth would you not do the event the same day as the biggest (top level athlete wise) IBJJF tournament of the year and pay the athletes what they deserve?” Ryan said. “I’ll tell you why, because you never gave a f*ck about the athletes in the first place and this event was for your own selfish reasons to (attempt to) get at people you don’t like because they’re way more successful than you. Flawed logic, hypocrisy, and lies left and right. That’s all from me, folks. Have a nice day.”
And a nice career.
2025 could be a landmark year for the jiu jitsu community now that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has entered the grappling business. Dana White and Co. just signed 28 year-old mat wizard Mikey Musumeci for its UFC Fight Pass Invitational Series.
Musumeci debuted with a victory over Felipe Machado earlier this month at APEX.