Craig Jones is a veteran BJJ black belt and one of the top no gi competitors on the planet, and he’s proved this time and time again. Jones is one of the leaders of the B-Team and as such, he has a huge amount of experience in coaching and training with top athletes in the sport. In a recent video, he gave a response to recent comments made by a top grappler who competes in an entirely different sport; Islam Makhachev. Makhachev is the current UFC Lightweight world champion after defeating Charles Oliveira for the title and the Sambo specialist who recently talked about BJJ black belts in MMA and how he rates their grappling skill:
“We have to cancel many black belts, they make Jiu-Jitsu look bad. Because a lot of guys have black belt but I don’t know [if they have the skills].”
Makhachev will be defending his title against the UFC Featherweight world champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284 and Jones has actually been Volkanovski’s grappling coach in recent years, including working with him on The Ultimate Fighter. As a result, Jones has the important task of helping Volkanovski prepare for Makhachev’s crushing top pressure and devastating wrestling. As such, he’s taken some time to think about Makhachev’s comments:
“I honestly agree with what Makhachev says, a lot of people deserve to have that black belt taken away. I kind of agree with that. I think what those guys are doing is sort of superior to what we’ve been doing for a long time because we built an entire sport around conceding bottom position.”
Craig Jones actually clarified his comments on taking away a black belt from people out there, explaining that he didn’t even mean it in terms of MMA like Makhachev originally did:
“I’m not one of those guys that says we should grapple as if people are striking us, but I believe we should grapple as if the tough guy knows how to pass and pin. And a lot of guys don’t mind being on bottom because they’ve never rolled with a guy that knows how to pass guard or pin someone, so don’t know how fatiguing and horrible it is.”
The above quote where Craig Jones makes the response to Makhachev cancelling someones BJJ black belt is an excerpt from the below video, which was uploaded to the official YouTube Channel of the B-Team:
