This article is part of our ADCC 2024 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Craig Jones has just revealed that he doesn’t intend to compete at ADCC 2024, and has even gone so far as to request that his invite be given to Jacob Rodriguez instead. Jones is undoubtedly one of the most popular BJJ competitors on the planet and he’s also won a pair of silver medals at ADCC in the past. Because one of the silver medals came in the under 99kg division of ADCC 2022, he would traditionally have been given an automatic invite to compete in the next event. Instead, Jones has decided to use his platform in the sport to shed some light on issues that he has with the way that the promotion works.
Jones has made public complaints about the lack of pay involved in the IBJJF World Championship in the past too, and he’s been using his podcast and social media presence to shed light on a number of the biggest issues on the sport. He’s even shared inside information about some of FloGrappling’s business practices too. His most recent comments on ADCC came in the form of a comment on Reddit:
“Guys call me crazy but Thomas and Mack Centre is 20k capacity for audience and T Mobile is 20k. T Mobile costs 2 million to rent and Thomas and Mack much cheaper. I think we the athletes deserve to be paid more than the guys that hit the drums. I ain’t doing ADCC. I’m a g*d d*mn karate guy.”
Jones is referring to the fact he has recently been competing at Pit Submission Series, a grappling event run by the minds behind Karate Combat. Not only has he obviously been paid well for his time competing at the event, but he’s also openly said that they treat him better in general than other promotions he’s worked with in the past. One of the common responses for the lack of pay at ADCC or the IBJJF World Championship is to compare it to the Olympics, where athletes are not compensated for their time or victories either. But Jones takes issue with that comparison:
“Guys it is true that Olympians don’t get paid for their participation or their medals. However, it’s the f***ing Olympic games. If you go to any person on earth and say ‘I was in the Olympics’ they go ‘wow! The Olympics?!’. If you go to any person on earth and say ‘I’m in the ADCC’ they’re gonna say ‘first of all, what the f*** is the ADCC?’ and you’re gonna say ‘funny you mention that, it’s just like the Olympic games but for Jiu-Jitsu’.”
B-Team Jiu-Jitsu will still have a strong presence at ADCC 2024 of course, and Craig Jones will still be working as a cornerman for his teammates regardless. With some of them being given invites based on past performance and some of them earning them through winning ADCC Trials, he has one particular teammate in mind who he wants to pass his invite on to:
“One final thing to leave it. Obviously I’ll be there coaching. Give my invite to (Jacob Rodriguez), one of the most exciting grapplers in the world. He was so good at ADCC Trials, he got 7 submissions at the previous ones to enter the event, he had a close match with Pedro Marinho. Give this man my invite, it’s the right thing to do.”
Craig Jones announced that he would not be competing at ADCC 2024 in an initial post and a series of stories posted to his official Instagram account:
