Craig Jones has just announced that he will be facing Olympic champion Gable Steveson in a superfight at CJI 2 on August 31st, 2025. Although there have been a handful of elite freestyle wrestlers crossing over into Jiu-Jitsu in the past, none have been as accomplished as Steveson is. Although the full competitor list for CJI 2 is still in the process of being announced and there will likely be at least one more superfight added to the event, it’s hard to imagine that they will be able to top this. This is arguably the biggest Jiu-Jitsu vs wrestling crossover match in the history of either sport.
Steveson was on the radar as a huge prospect in wrestling for several years, winning several freestyle world titles at different age groups before becoming an NCAA All-American in collegiate wrestling on his first attempt at 19. It was the following year in 2020 that Steveson hit the highest point of his career though, winning an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. He has since won a pair of NCAA Championships as well and although he suffered a huge upset in the final match of his last attempt earlier this year, he will still go down as one of the most dominant American heavyweight wrestlers of all time.
Not only will Craig Jones have the challenge of dealing with an elite wrestler but Steveson has a huge size advantage, competing at 120kg. Jones on the other hand has competed at both 88kg and 99kg during his ADCC career and although he proved himself to be one of the best in the world, a 20kg+ weight difference is incredibly hard to overcome. On Steveson’s part, his biggest challenge will be adapting to a new sport with a different ruleset. He is an elite grappler and some of that does transcend rulesets, but he will have to shore up his submission defense and work on his guard-passing at least.
The Craig Jones Invitational announced the news that the main event superfight at CJI 2 would be Jones himself against Gable Steveson in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
