The growth of Jiu-Jitsu over the last few years has been astronomical and it’s come from several different areas, but Craig Jones attributes most of it to Joe Rogan and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. The conversation only began because of a recent disagreement between Mo Jassim, the head organizer of ADCC, and former ADCC world champion Robert Drysdale. Jassim shared his thoughts on the growth of Jiu-Jitsu and how much ADCC has driven that success over the last few years, while Drysdale disagreed and instead gave more credit to the IBJJF.
This is far from the first time that Jassim and Drysdale have butted heads publicly, but this is the first time that Jones wanted to weigh in. Craig Jones started out by giving Jassim and the rest of the crew behind ADCC their dues for how well they’ve grown the professional Jiu-Jitsu scene:
“What Mo’s (Jassim) done for the competition scene is impressive, you know? Obviously he’s not responsible for all of that but he’s sorta riding the wave of it and doing incredible things with it. Just look at how strong the ADCC brand is that people are doing ADCC Opens. There’s really nothing that separates the open from a NAGA, from an IBJJF, apart from the prestige of the name and people liking the ruleset, and wanting experience in the ruleset to compete. To better prepare themselves for trials and worlds.”
Despite the criticism he’s had for the IBJJF in the past, Craig Jones also gave some credit to them for the growth of Jiu-Jitsu as well:
“But again, that’s the power of the brand and that’s the power of the brand that Mo has helped build. ADCC has a legacy but he’s been boss for a while and he’s helped build that. So I will say that, Mo has contributed. I believe he has hugely contributed, that’s not to say that IBJJF hasn’t. IBJJF has developed a ruleset that’s the most common for competitors in the sport. They put on a good event, we talk a lot of sh*t about them but they put on a good event and it’s consistent. It’s everywhere, it’s all around the world, it’s recognizable, everyone knows it.”
While there’s plenty of credit for the growth of Jiu-Jitsu owed to both ADCC and the IBJJF, Craig Jones actually chose Joe Rogan as the person he attributes most of the rise in popularity to:
“For me, growth of the sport is how many people sign up for Jiu-Jitsu classes and go to Jiu-Jitsu gyms and try to learn. I can’t say many people would watch an ADCC or an IBJJF and decide to start doing Jiu-Jitsu. If anything, if anything they watched a Joe Rogan podcast clip on YouTube and he spoke of the virtues of Jiu-Jitsu and they thought ‘yeah, I’ll give that shot’ you know? Joe Rogan helped rebrand who you think does Jiu-Jitsu because he gave exposure to people like Eddie Bravo. Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, often times you meet a Karate or a Tae Kwon Do guy back in the day and you were like ‘this guy’s a f*cking weirdo and he’s probably doing this to hang out with kids.’ or you imagined a UFC/MMA fighter and you were like ‘that ain’t me’… They exposed people to the idea that a different type of person participates in this sport and that type of person is a regular Joe. You can be a regular person.”
Considering the fact that the Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on earth and he regularly has Jiu-Jitsu and MMA guests, or openly recommends Jiu-Jitsu to his listeners himself. With the sheer amount of reach that Rogan has, it makes perfect sense to think that more people have discovered Jiu-Jitsu from him than from any other source:
“I think, personally, the growth of the sport isn’t related to competition. I think Mo (Jassim) has grown the competition scene through ADCC. More people wanna compete than ever, that already do Jiu-Jitsu, because of the ADCC. But yeah, I don’t know if I would agree. I think the real growth of the sport’s probably from people like (Joe) Rogan on podcasts and stuff.”
The full episode of El Segundo podcast where Craig Jones talks about the growth of Jiu-Jitsu was uploaded to the official YouTube channel:
