Craig Jones is a regular fixture for Chael Sonnen’s brainchild Submission Underground, but it appears as though this may no longer be the case. The news comes after the promotion hosted it’s seventeenth event, one that was headlined by Jones’ third match against Mason Fowler. The main event only came about due to a rather contentious decision in their previous event, where Fowler was given the nod in overtime due to what the referee determined was a verbal tap by Jones.
In the pair’s rubber match, Fowler played to the rules of SUG perfectly by disengaging and neutralizing Jones’ game for the regulation time of five minutes, before then managing to win during the EBI-rules overtime rounds. This is in stark contrast to something like Jones’ upcoming match with Roberto Jimenez at Who’s Number One, where not only will there be a much longer regulation period but should the match end without a submission, the winner will be decided by judges with the primary criteria being submission attempts.
Craig Jones revealed on a recent Reddit post that he may be done competing for Submission Underground with the rules as they currently stand:
“A win is a win. The man beat me fair and square. If I sat here and criticized the rules, I wouldn’t be focusing on what actually improves my game.”
“That being said, I’d be lying if I wasn’t considering declining future SUG matches until they extend the regulation length. This is for my own personal enjoyment. I hate training overtime rounds. Whether that be the golden score or EBI.“
While nothing is set in stone as yet, it’s unlikely many fans would blame Jones for his decision if he does choose to either stop competing for SUG, or force them to consider longer regulation time-periods.
