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 is one of the most popular grapplers on the planet but apparently he might not be returning to compete at ADCC 2024. While he’s not exactly old, Jones will be 33 by the time that the next edition of the ADCC world championship takes place and that is generally the time that athletes start to consider retirement. BJJ is unlike most other sports though, in that it’s technical nature means that many competitors have managed to continue at the highest level of the sport deep into their 30s. Aging and old injuries do still take an effect of course and even those that can still compete, often simply choose not to.
Jones recently sat down with Lachlan Giles on an episode of his El Segundo podcast and he revealed that he’s reaching that point himself now:
“I’m at the point where like, if my body breaks down I’m just gonna be like ‘you know what? Let’s call it a day’ you know? I just mean I’ll stop training, you know?”
This isn’t the first time that discussions around Jones retiring from the sport have come up, so it seems like this is something that genuinely might be coming soon. He’s still one of the best grapplers on the planet at the moment and he’s still taking matches too, so fans at least know he’s still around for the near-future. Naturally Giles asked Craig Jones about his desire to compete in the upcoming ADCC world championship in 2024, but Jones was not particularly enthusiastic about it:
“I don’t know if I’ll do ADCC, you know? It’s a tough one, ey. It’s a lot of work you know? it’s a big commitment of time.”
Nothing is definitive yet of course, and Jones still has around a year before the event takes place. He didn’t completely shut down the idea either, and he even referenced the fact that both he and Giles have competed in 4 ADCC events as a motivation to return one more time:
“I’ll tell you what, the only reason I wanna do it is because you’ve done ADCC how many times? And I’ve done it 4 times so I wanna just remind you that I will be in the five-timers club, you know? But then you might just surprise and show up for a fifth one.”
The full episode of El Segundo podcast with Lachlan Giles, where Craig Jones says he doesn’t know if he’ll do ADCC 2024, was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of B-Team Jiu-Jitsu:
