Craig Jones has just gone on a long seminar tour spanning across Europe, raising over $100,000 for charity in the process. It’s a massive undertaking that has seen him travel through multiple countries, teaching hundreds of grapplers along the way. This is hardly the first time that Jones has been involved with charities of course, and since reaching a comfortable level in his own career he has consistently tried to give back to both the sport and the wider community. That was actually one of the driving forces behind the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational, as it was founded as a non-profit organisation from the start.
Running a Jiu-Jitsu event with the goal of donating all profit to charity is significantly different to raising money through a seminar tour though. Aside from a handful of tournaments, coincidentally like the Craig Jones Invitational, it’s not possible for grapplers to actually make a living as competitors. That means that the majority of a competitor’s income usually comes from teaching seminars or instructional sales, and forgoing a large chunk of that income is certainly admirable. Other competitors like Mica Galvao have done something similar with single charity seminars, but it’s rare to see such a sustained effort like this.
The first CJI managed to raise over half a million dollars for Tap Cancer Out and with this extra $100,000 included, Jones is doing more for charity than most grapplers ever will. Given that he’s showing no signs of slowing down and he continues to work with the Guardian Gym Project, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him raise millions of dollars over the course of his career. In fact; the lineup for the Craig Jones Invitational 2 is currently being released and it looks like it might be even bigger than before, so he might hit that remarkable milestone later this year.
Craig Jones shared the photos from his European seminar tour where he raised over $100,000 for charity in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
