Eddie Bravo’s Combat Jiu-Jitsu world championships really pulled out all of the stops when they announced that Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone would be taking on Craig Jones in a superfight at the next event. Recently, Cerrone took some time out of his busy training schedule to explain how the match came to be and how he intends to approach the match in order to give himself the best chance of success:
“Eddie Bravo called me. He wants me to take a super fight against hands down the baddest jiu-jitsu artist around right now. I mean, it’s sick. But it’s Combat Jiu-Jitsu, so there’s palm striking. It’s wrestling until you hit the ground but then it’s palm striking and jiu-jitsu, which will be fun.”
“Hopefully, I can negate him from a heel hook by palm striking him in the face. I don’t know. Me and Jaffa we’re talking about it today, should I put on weight for this or do we not? What do we do? Would it be hard to put on weight just to take it back off? So, I’m not sure what we’re going to do on that aspect of it. I think I’m just gonna walk in and fight him at whatever I am, I don’t care.
Of course, it’s not just the Combat Jiu-Jitsu ruleset that presents a challenge for him, Donald Cerrone also explained that Craig Jones is a uniquely difficult fighter to prepare for thanks to his phenomenal skillset:
“I’m excited to go in there and roll with the best. So it’s fun to get something fired up and then use all that fired up energy and then run it into a fight. I’ll be in shape, ready to rock. It’s hard to find somebody to emulate his style. He’s one of the best, if not hands down the best. Especially leglocks and his rear naked game is very impressive…”
“Going and competing with one of the best, to me that’s unbelievable. Like when I did the last one I got to go in there and roll with Dos Anjos, like of course I’m gonna take that fight. Why not? I think he might be super interested in my wrestling, especially open mat wrestling.”
Surprisingly, Cerrone even finds himself more excited for the opportunity to grapple with Jones than he has been for his most recent UFC fights. He was asked about that and he responded very confidently:
“Right now I am, for sure I am. I don’t know, it’s just different, changing it up. And at this level, there’s no shortcut. My last fights, I’ve taken shortcuts and you see it just hasn’t ended well. I got an age and maturity in my training that I just know what I have to do and what it takes to be the cowboy that everyone wants to see fight. Cancun, December 19th. Craig Jones. This isn’t like just stepping in and doing a little grappling tournament. This is going to the top, so it should be fun.”
The upcoming Combat Jiu-Jitsu match won’t actually be the first time that Donald Cerrone and Craig Jones will have rolled, as the pair have previously trained together during Jones’ time as a coach on season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter:
“I’ve only rolled with him one time at the UFC, during the TUF finale. He was a coach for the TUF, and I was like ‘hey, man. Let’s do a little rolling.’ He’s very good, but he was sitting there telling his friends that I was good, too.”
The full video of Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone discussing his upcoming Combat Jiu-Jitsu superfight against Craig Jones was uploaded to his official YouTube channel, and can be seen below.
The full Combat Jiu Jitsu Featherweight World Championships event, including the superfight between Craig Jones and Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, will be available to watch live on December 19th on UFC FightPass, click here to subscribe and watch.
