This article is part of our Craig Jones Invitational 2024 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Craig Jones has previously kept the unsuccessful invites to CJI pretty quiet, but now he’s revealed the two most surprising competitors to turn him down. Jones appeared on an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast to help promote the Craig Jones Invitational and they discussed the upcoming event from all angles. Obviously one of the biggest stories to emerge from Jones challenging ADCC head-on with his own promotion is the fact that he managed to poach so much top talent from the promotion. For all the elite competitors that joined the CJI lineup, there were also several big names that stuck with ADCC instead.
When Fridman asked Craig Jones about the most surprising competitors to turn down CJI invites, there was one name that immediately came to mind:
“Kaynan (Duarte). He was a semi-in, semi-out. His suggestion was actually to do a second and third-placed prize rather than a million. And I’m like ‘no, we want all or nothing. It’s all or nothing here.’ It’s a better spectacle, better entertainment, probably more injuries, but it’s all or nothing.”
Duarte chose to remain at ADCC 2024 in the end and he will be looking to earn his third consecutive title at the event, but he wasn’t the only big name to turn Jones down:
“Mica Galvao, the one that got away. That’s sad, but we got the Ruotolos.”
The Ruotolo brothers are both competing at CJI after accepting the invites Jones offered to them, and they are among the top competitors in the under 80kg division. Jones went on to explain that Galvao might have jumped the gun a little bit when he decided which promotion to commit to:
“Things would be more complicated there. Mica officially joined ADCC before we secured the Ruotolos. Kade (Ruotolo) beat him in the final, Mica’s personally motivated to face off against Kade. So he didn’t know Kade was in our event before he agreed to ADCC.”
While Galvao undoubtedly wants to get a win over Kade Ruotolo, that isn’t the only thing that he took into consideration when deciding where to compete:
“There’s more to that story too in terms of Mica doing ADCC because a bunch of the kids in his team, I think they’re being flown out to do the ADCC kids event. So there’s like his two teammates, or at least one of his teammates, will be doing the ADCC 66kg division. His dad, his coach, doesn’t really want to split time between two events. That’s a difficulty for athletes there. But obviously disappointing we couldn’t secure Mica.”
The logistics wasn’t the only thing that pulled Galvao towards sticking with ADCC either though, as there was even more in play for him than most other competitors.
“Mica said he was about the legacy. So he wanted to be the youngest guy ever to double grad slam, which is basically win all the gi events and win the ADCC that same year.”
Galvao won the first three major gi tournaments this year and finished his IBJJF grand slam run by winning the IBJJF World Championship. Craig Jones went on to explain that Galvao building towards an incredibly rare super grand slam meant that he could make an even bigger impact by accepting one of the invites to CJI:
“My thoughts were: If I was in his position, and I never was obviously a prodigy or talent like that, I thought he had a position to make a statement in the sport. To kind’ve, as cheesy as it sounds, to be on the right side of history. To have turned down a double grand slam to be in an event that support athlete’s pay. Again I don’t overly criticise him, but I think in terms of your legacy and reputation, to be at a point and choose to do that is much more memorable than him getting that double grand slam – Which I’m sure he will win the ADCC 77kg division this year, but it’ll be somewhat tarnished anyway.”
The full interview with Craig Jones where he reveals the two most surprising competitors to turn down CJI invites was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Lex Fridman podcast:
