John Danaher is one of the most successful BJJ coaches in the world, and he recently shared his thoughts on the Craig Jones Invitational. None of the grapplers at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu that Danaher coaches actually competed at the event, but he is famous for watching hours of match footage so it’s no surprise that he’s seen it. The inaugural Craig Jones Invitational was a huge success and it involved several elite competitors that will likely be future opponents for his students too. He has likely watched it as both a fan of the sport, and as a diligent coach with one eye in the future.
He revealed what he thought about the event during a recent conversation with Jake Shields on his podcast, and his assessment was incredibly positive:
“That was a fantastic show. They did an incredible job… Not only did they do an incredible show, they did an incredible job against all the odds. The show wasn’t even conceived until a relatively short time before it was put in place.”
Although John Danaher wasn’t physically present at the first edition of the Craig Jones Invitational, Jones himself is confident that New Wave will be fielding a team in the second edition. Although nothing official has come from Danaher or any of his students just yet, there really is nothing to stand in their way now that there’s no direct conflict with ADCC. The positive review from Danaher also adds some weight to the idea of his team competing, and he made a great point that Jones put it all together in very little time:
“You’ve got to do a lot of work, you’ve got to get a lot of little bureaucratic things done. And to put on an international-level show, I think they had like three or four months to get it ready, it’s not long at all. And to get it that good on the first attempt, it was impressive.”
The full interview with John Danaher where he shares his thoughts on the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Jake Shields’ Fight Backpodcast:
