Craig Jones will now be facing UFC veteran Philip Rowe in the main event of Pit Submission Series 2 on February 23rd, 2024. It’s a huge move by the relatively young promotion, as Jones is one of the most popular figures in the sport and will undoubtedly attract a lot of attention. Although Pit Submission Series is relatively new on the scene, the people behind it have a ton of experience in combat sports promotion and they’ve already come up with a unique idea. The promotion is headed up by the same minds that are behind Karate Combat, and it even uses the same pit that fans are used to seeing elite striking matches in.
The first Pit Submission Series event took place just a week ago and not only did it provide a ton of action, but it also showed that the unique setting for grappling matches might be worth exploring further. It featured some of the top prospects in the sport currently training at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu and they were facing veteran competitors like Vagner Rocha and Max Gimenis. There were only three matches booked for the event, so naturally the pit walls weren’t used very much, but there was a glimpse of the things that could be done when Rocha used the wall to help him pass Luke Griffith‘s guard.
With more grappling matches taking place in the pit, there’s even more chance to see some unique exchanges that are only possible with the help of walls at a 45 degree angle. That’s one of the reasons that Craig Jones v Philip Rowe is actually great matchmaking for Pit Submission Series 2, as both of these men are the type of competitor to want to make use of something like that. Jones actually won ‘Submission of the Year’ in 2023 for his unique toehold finish at Quintet 4 so as the heavy favorite here, it’ll be interesting to see if he can pull off something crazy using the wall.
Craig Jones announced the news that he was going to face Philip Rowe in the main event of Pit Submission Series 2 in a recent post to their official Instagram account: