Diego ‘Pato’ Oliviera has just shocked everyone by joining the ATOS team as their wildcard entry for the second Craig Jones Invitational (CJI 2). It’s a huge boost to a team that would have already had one of the most impressive lineups at the event, just by virtue of being one of the top teams in the world right now. They have access to many ADCC and IBJJF world champions across multiple weight classes, but most of their representatives are still yet to be announced. Alongside Oliveira at under 66kg, the only other confirmed ATOS competitor is Felipe Pena at over 99kg.
Although ATOS are the only team with three spaces left in the CJI 2 lineup, they’re already looking like a formidable force just with their two confirmed competitors. Oliveira is easily one of the best competitors in the world in his weight class and Felipe Pena actually won the over 99 kg division at ADCC 2024. Pato finished with a silver medal at under 66kg in the same event but the only man who beat him in the bracket, Diogo Reis, will not be competing at CJI 2. The real value in having Pato on the team isn’t just that he’s one of the best competitors in that weight class, it’s also his ability to succeed against bigger opponents.
Pato has moved up in weight classes to challenge himself a few times over the years and one of his most impressive performances came at Who’s Number One 22 just last year. He was already the promotion’s featherweight champion coming into the event and he was moving up to lightweight for an attempt to become double champion. He achieved that goal by submitting Dante Leon, who will also be competing at CJI 2 at under 77kg. That submission-threat against bigger opponents is the most important factor when choosing lighter grapplers in Quintet-style events, because it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll be facing a size disadvantage at some point.
Craig Jones announced the news that Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira was going to be the ATOS wildcard for CJI 2 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
