Craig Jones will be returning to competition at least one more time, as he’s just announced that he will take on Dillon Danis in the main event of CJI 3. This will be the third consecutive time that Jones has competed in his own event, but his career has been winding down at the same time. Since the inaugural CJI took place, Jones has not competed on any other platform and has only had those two matches. He was already making limited appearances even before that too; competing in only 6 events for a total of 9 matches across the entirety of 2023 and 2024.
It isn’t just Jones getting older though, creating one of the biggest professional grappling promotions in the world has taken up a tremendous amount of his time over the last few years. That’s why his only appearances have been at his own events, but so far he is undefeated on the CJI mats. He submitted Gabi Garcia in their intergender match at CJI 1 and although the CJI 2 main event initially fell apart at the very last minute, an MMA legend stepped in on short notice so that the show could go on. Jones ended up facing Chael Sonnen at CJI 2, submitting him with a buggy choke twice.
This would be another match against an MMA fighter who’s known for his trash talk, but Danis has had a much shorter MMA career and far more experience in Jiu-Jitsu. Although he has gained notoriety for his antics at events and on social media, he was a high-level Jiu-Jitsu competitor not all that long ago. If Danis takes this match seriously then he will probably give Jones the toughest match he’s had at a CJI event so far. The match has been in the works for quite a while too, as Jones revealed that he actually approached Danis about competing in the first CJI event almost two years ago.
Craig Jones announced the news that he would be facing Dillon Danis in the main event of CJI 3 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
