A huge blow has just been struck to the CJI 2 lineup just days before it takes place, as elite wrestler Gable Steveson has pulled out of his superfight with Craig Jones. Although Steveson has not yet commented on the news, Jones announced on his social media channels that it was due to a toe injury that Steveson has suffered in training. It’s undoubtedly caused some chaos behind the scenes for the Craig Jones Invitational, as they now have less than a week to find a replacement for him. There’s probably a fair few grapplers who’d be willing to step in on short notice but not many with the same star power or resume as Steveson.
In typical Craig Jones fashion, he has immediately begun mocking Steveson for withdrawing from the event and has even used the idea of finding a replacement to do so too. Jones semi-jokingly reached out to Wyatt Hendrickson; who was the last man to beat Steveson in a wrestling match earlier this year. Although Hendrickson would be still have the huge physical advantages over Jones and it would keep the wrestling vs BJJ element of the match alive, he would not have much time to prepare. Steveson was already preparing for an MMA career and had weeks of time to train for the match, whereas Hendrickson would be coming in virtually blind.
Steveson’s MMA transition is actually one of the more interesting aspects of this news as well, because he had only just announced that he was making his MMA debut just a few weeks after CJI 2. This might throw those plans of course as well, as two weeks is likely not long enough to heal from an injury that’s too severe to compete right now. That’s at least something that could be delayed by a few more weeks or months though, whereas CJI 2 cannot be postponed. In fact, it may not be coming back around next year either if it loses the amount of money that Jones is predicting it might.
Craig Jones announced the news that Gable Steveson had pulled out of their superfight at CJI 2 in a recent story uploaded to his official Instagram account:
