Ana Vieira has just become the third woman to enter the under 145lbs female tournament coming up at the second Craig Jones Invitational (CJI 2). Only a select few grapplers were ever going to get the chance to compete at the event, as this will be just a four-woman bracket. The competition for those four spaces will be fierce too, as it is the highest-paying female tournament in history with $100,000 on the line for the winner. There is just one invite left to go out now that Vieira has entered the bracket, and dozens of top contenders who would jump at the chance to take it.
Vieira was always going to the top choice though, as she actually won the under 66kg division at ADCC 2024 and that’s the same weight class being contested here. She will now be going straight into a tough fight camp in order to prepare for the tournament, as she doesn’t have much time left. Once she hits the mats on August 30th and 31st, 2025, she’ll have to beat two of the best grapplers in the world to take home the grand prize. That’s no exaggeration either, the other two women in the CJI 2 tournament lineup are both highly-accomplished and dangerous competitors.
The first woman to be announced was Helena Crevar, the biggest female Jiu-Jitsu prodigy around who actually won a silver medal after losing to Vieira on points in the final of ADCC last year. Although Crevar is so far the only woman in the bracket that Vieira has already faced, the other confirmed competitor also stood on the podium at ADCC. Adele Fornarino was the second woman to join the lineup and although she won gold in the lighter weight class at under 55kg, she already proved that size doesn’t matter to her by winning the absolute division at the same time. It’ll be one of the most stacked women’s divisions this year, and Vieira isn’t the only one who’s going to be very tough to beat.
Craig Jones announced the news that Ana Vieira was joining the CJI 2 lineup in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
