The Craig Jones Invitational 2 will be a landmark moment for women’s Jiu-Jitsu, as four of the best female competitors in the world will battle it out for $100,000. The CJI 2 lineup was incredible to begin with, but the promotion has decided to set a whole new standard by offering the biggest prize in women’s Jiu-Jitsu history. Although it’s not the million-dollar prize that the men fought for at the inaugural CJI last year, it’s still a step forward from the single female superfight then and the eventual winner will take home more money than any female Jiu-Jitsu competitor has ever been paid before.
Craig Jones Invitational 2 – $100,000 Women’s Grand Prix Preview
Because there’s just four women in the bracket, every single one of them is among the very best in the world. It’s going to make for some very close matches and the CJI ruleset really pushes the action, so there should be a lot for the fans to enjoy. The champion will only have to win two matches but at this level, that can be harder than the entire lineup of some events. It’s tough to predict a winner because every one of these women are capable of beating the others on the right day, but we’ll analyse the stylistic matchups here.
Adele Fornarino
Adele Fornarino is still riding high from a career-defining performance at ADCC 2024, but all three of her opponents here are brand new matchups for her. She won both the under 55kg division and the absolute division at ADCC 2024, beating bigger opponents several times during her run. Fornarino has really good leg attacks but her primary weapon is always her armbars, which she can submit pretty much anyone in the world with. She’s also incredibly good at the Mir lock and although it isn’t as universal as her other threats, it makes all of her opponents really focus on what they do with underhooks. She’s probably the favorite on paper but this is far from a done deal, and every match will be tough.
Ana Vieira
Ana Vieira is also a reigning ADCC world champion, as she stormed to victory in the under 65kg division last year. She didn’t do the absolute though so she never crossed paths with Fornarino at the event, and she would have been one of her toughest stylistic matchups. Vieira has excellent knee-cut passing and often mixes up her approach, maintaining pressure while keeping the guard-player unable to launch significant offense. She also already has a points win over Crevar, so she stands a very good chance of winning here if she can continue to shut down the guard-players.
Helena Crevar
Helena Crevar has been a top prospect for what feels like forever at this point, and she made good on that promise by becoming the youngest ever ADCC medalist last year. She lost to Vieira on points in the final but she was able to show off her strengths in the first two matches she had. Crevar has one of the best closed guards in the sport and since joining New Wave Jiu-Jitsu a few years ago, she’s also developed elite-level leg attacks. She’s pretty well-rounded now in terms of the threats she can present off her back but she generally doesn’t wrestle so it may be hard for her to win under this ruleset if she can’t get deep into her attacking sequences.
Sarah Galvao
Sarah Galvao is the biggest unknown in the bracket. As the daughter of Andre Galvao she’s obviously very well-known in general but she’s almost completely untested at this level. She’s beaten a few top black belts in the gi already but she hasn’t had much exposure to the very best in the world, and especially not in no gi. She actually holds a win over Crevar from a gi match just a few months ago, using a picture-perfect gameplan to beat her guard. She has the same devastating stack pass as her father and showed it during that match, but she’s just as well-rounded as he was too. If she can cope with the higher level of competition then she actually has exactly the right set of skills to do very well here.
The $100,000 women’s grand prix at the Craig Jones Invitational 2 will be available to watch live on August 30th and 31st, 2025 on the official B-Team Jiu-Jitsu YouTube channel.
