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.
Gabi Garcia recently made the decision to withdraw from ADCC 2024 in order to compete against Craig Jones in a superfight at his event, the Craig Jones Invitational. It was a decision that surprised most people in the grappling world, as she was opting for an unusual matchup instead of a tournament with some of the best women on the planet. Now she’s actually explained the reason why she will finally be facing Jones, and what actually swayed her into making the choice. Craig Jones originally announced the superfight live on the Joe Rogan Experience and many fans could have been forgiven for thinking he was joking, but Garcia started out by confirming it herself:
“Everybody waiting for me to talk about this fight against Craig (Jones), this superfight… Yes, I go compete against him in a superfight in the Craig Jones Invitational. I go 17th (August).”
This means that she’ll be competing against Jones on the second day of the Craig Jones Invitational, and it would be taking place at the same time on the opening rounds of ADCC 2024. This is why she’ll have to miss out on the tournament and Garcia explained that it wasn’t an easy choice to make:
“It’s a hard, hard decision for me because it’s the first year they have an open class and my dream is to be an open class champion and in my division. But I can’t say no to this proposal because it’s the highest payment for girls and I think for guys too. I can’t say how much is in my contract, but it’s more than the guy’s superfight in ADCC.”
Garcia makes a great point, as 2024 will be the first time in almost two decades that ADCC has staged a women’s absolute division. That makes it the first time in Garcia’s career that she would have the chance to become a double champion and given that she’s won more ADCC gold medals than any other woman in history, she would have been one of the favorites to win. Although Gabi Garcia didn’t say exactly how much she was offered to compete at the Craig Jones Invitational instead, the men’s superfight she is comparing to has historically paid out $40,000 to the winner and $10,000 for the loser.
Everyone knew that Jones had secured $3,000,000 of funding to put on the highest paying grappling tournament in history, so it makes sense that he’d be able to offer so much to Garcia. What many people might not know is that he’s also supporting a cause that is near and dear to Garcia’s heart as well:
“This is 100% the highest payment in history and they offer me this, I say no. Offer, no. I asked, you know, ‘I compete for this’ and they say yes and not only this, they go donate money for south Brazil where I was born and they have all this tragedy where people don’t have food and water right now.”
Gabi Garcia uploaded the video where she explains why she withdrew from ADCC 2024 to compete at the Craig Jones Invitational to her official YouTube channel:
