This article is part of our Craig Jones Invitational 2024 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Eoghan O’Flanagan has just confirmed that he will be joining the Craig Jones Invitational and dropping down in weight in order to compete in the under 80kg division. O’Flanagan has been one of the best-kept secrets on the UK grappling circuit for quite some time now, but ADCC 2022 was his true breakthrough performance. Many people paying attention in the UK would have predicted that he would go far when he finally got his chance on the biggest stage but the signs were there for others to notice too, particularly when he won ADCC European, Middle-Eastern, and African Trials 2021 by submitting every single opponent.
O’Flanagan achieved that feat at under 88kg and secured his place in the same division at ADCC 2022, where he was given a very tough draw to fight through. That’s exactly what he did though, as he made it pretty comfortably on to the second day and ended up taking fourth place in the division. He faced BJJ legend Xande Ribeiro in the very first round and was absolutely relentless in pursuing the finish, mixing up attacks to both the lower and upper body before eventually winning on points. That would probably have been enough for him to attract attention anyway, but it was his second match of the day that truly shocked the world.
He faced ADCC veteran Mason Fowler in the second round and although Fowler was many people’s favorite to win, O’Flanagan locked up a lightning-quick heel hook and became just the second person to submit him at this level. He faced the eventual champion Giancarlo Bodoni in the semi-final and put him in some danger before eventually being submitted himself. He was unfortunate to suffer an injury to his foot in the process and lost the third-place match with Vagner Rocha after Rocha managed to attack his injured foot.
O’Flanagan came up against four of the best grapplers in the world across two days and gave every single one of them tough matches, coming away with two wins. Although nothing official was confirmed, a fourth-place finish historically would have guaranteed him an invite to ADCC 2024. Now that he’s dropping down even further in weight to under 80kg for the Craig Jones Invitational instead, Eoghan O’Flanagan will be a serious threat. He’ll have to face another incredibly stacked bracket of elite competitors if he wants to leave with the million-dollar grand prize of course, but he’s definitely got the skills to do it.
The Craig Jones Invitational announced that Eoghan O’Flanagan would be competing in their under 80kg division in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
