Craig Jones has just pledged a total of $48,000 for the female medalists at ADCC 2026, bringing their prize money in line with the male divisions. It’s a huge move from Jones and the organization he helped found, the Fair Fight Foundation, and it’s part of his ongoing commitment to improve conditions in professional Jiu-Jitsu competition. The last time ADCC came around, Jones pitted himself directly against them in one of the biggest rivalries in the history of the sport by hosting the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational on the same weekend. Going against them clearly had a positive impact on the sport, as they paid female champions the same as male champions for the first time ever at ADCC 2024.
Male champions were historically paid $10,000 and female champions were paid $6,000, but head organizer Mo Jassim confirmed that he was paying all weight class champions $10,000 in 2024. Now the promotion has taken a step forward in terms of athlete pay in general, increasing their total prize money by over $130,000 for 2026. The male champions will now receive twice as much as they have before, but the female champions will still receive $10,000. Jones immediately took to social media to raise his complaints about the decision, before acting to rectify it himself despite having no connection to ADCC:
”Yesterday I said I’d host a CJI the same day as ADCC in Poland this year. I was a bit upset. That’s obviously a joke, I’m not going to Poland, nobody is. I do not want to divide the sport, I do not want to upset, and get a lot more death threats than I usually do. They announced that the women’s pay was going to remain increased as of the last ADCC, but they doubled the men’s pay. That’s a $16,000 difference per the 3 women’s weight divisions, in total $48,000. I’ve decided, put of the kindness of my own heart and the Fair Fight Foundation, to pay the $48,000 difference so that women and men get paid the same for ADCC.”
Craig Jones announced his pledge to ensure that female ADCC champions are paid equal prize money in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
