The Craig Jones Invitational 2025 (CJI 2) will take place on August 30th and 31st, 2025, and we’ll be continually updating this teams and competitor list for the event. The inaugural CJI was a huge success and became one of the biggest events in Jiu-Jitsu history, watched by millions of people around the world. Creating something of that magnitude from scratch was a huge challenge in itself, but the challenge now is to do something completely new. CJI 2 will be a Quintet-style tournament featuring 8 teams of 5 grapplers all battling it out for the million-dollar prize, which will be split among the winning team.
Unlike Quintet where teams have a total weight-limit, the teams will have to field a competitor in each of the five traditional ADCC weight classes of -66kg, -77kg, -88kg, -99kg, and +99kg. Five of the teams competing will be representing a specific affiliation in Jiu-Jitsu, while the remaining three teams are all ‘Misfits’ teams representing Australasia, Europe, and The Americas. This gives competitors from smaller affiliations the opportunity to receive an invite to CJI 2, and each team also has a single ‘wildcard’ invite too. This allows them to draft in one competitor from another team or location in order to fill out their roster of five elite grapplers.
Craig Jones Invitational 2025 (CJI 2) Teams And Competitor List
New Wave / Kingsway Jiu-Jitsu
Coach: John Danaher
-66kg: Dorian Olivarez
-77kg: ???
-88kg: Giancarlo Bodoni
-99kg: Luke Griffith
+99kg: Dan Manasoiu
B-Team Jiu-Jitsu
Coach: Nicky Ryan
-66kg: Ethan Crelinsten
-77kg: Jozef Chen
-88kg: Chris Wojcik
-99kg: Nicky Rodriguez
+99kg: Victor Hugo
10th Planet
Coach: Eddie Bravo
-66kg: Geo Martinez
-77kg: Alan Sanchez
-88kg: PJ Barch
-99kg: Ryan Aitken
+99kg: Kyle Boehm
ATOS Jiu-Jitsu
Coach: Andre Galvao
-66kg: Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira
-77kg: ???
-88kg: ???
-99kg: ???
+99kg: Felipe Pena
Pedigo Submission Fighting
Coach: Heath Pedigo
-66kg: Max Hanson
-77kg: Dante Leon
-88kg: Jacob Couch
-99kg: Michael Pixley
+99kg: Brandon Reed
Team Misfits Australasia
Coach: Lachlan Giles
-66kg: Fabricio Andrey
-77kg: Kenta Iwamoto
-88kg: Lucas Kanard
-99kg: Declan Moody
+99kg: Belal Etiabari
Team Misfits Europe
Coach: Faris Ben-Lamkadem
-66kg: Owen Jones
-77kg: Pawel Jaworski
-88kg: Paul Ardila
-99kg: Charles Negromonte
+99kg: Marcin Maciulewicz
Team Misfits Americas
Coach: Greg Souders
-66kg: Gavin Corbe
-77kg: Deandre Corbe
-88kg: Elijah Dorsey
-99kg: Taylor Pearman
+99kg: Pat Downey
Four-Woman Tournament
Jones also announced the first ever CJI women’s tournament for 2025, and the promotion has put $100,000 on the line for the winner. Just four women will be competing in this bracket and there’s no weight class confirmed just yet, so it seems as though it will be an absolute tournament.
Superfights
The inaugural Craig Jones Invitational featured two incredible superfights and it seems likely that CJI 2 will feature at least that many in 2025, so we’ll be adding them to this competitor list as and when they’re officially announced. Jones announced himself as the first superfight competitor, teasing that he would be competing in the ‘biggest grappling match in history.’ Other names have been floated around since then and even Demetrious Johnson has been discussed as a potential competitor, although he shut down the idea quickly. After a few months of fans being left wondering who he would face, Jones revealed that his opponent in the CJI 2 superfight will be Olympic champion wrestler Gable Steveson.
CJI 2 will be available to watch live on August 30th and 31st, 2025 on the official B-Team Jiu-Jitsu YouTube channel.
