John Danaher has just revealed the very first information on the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu team lineup for the upcoming edition of the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI 2). Because there is still several months left before the tournament takes place, most of the competitors are still unknown. New Wave has now become the second team to put forward their roster for the CJI 2 competitor list, after the first places were booked by Team Misfits Australasia. Now that the elite grapplers representing New Wave have been announced by Danaher in a recent interview with FloGrappling, the number of open spots available is slowly dwindling down.
There are five spots available on every team and each one corresponds with one of the five ADCC weight classes, making selection at certain weights very difficult. Danaher had multiple options to fill the under and over 99kg weight classes, but injury and illness has left him with two clear choices:
”Gordon (Ryan) is very sick at this point, so I don’t believe he’ll be competing again. Nicholas (Meregali) is very badly injured… his first shoulder surgery was not as successful as people were hoping for. So he had to do a second shoulder surgery, so he definitely won’t be ready in time. So those two are simply just not there, so that kinda makes some of the decisions easier. We only really have one remaining heavyweight, that’s big Dan (Manasoiu) so that’s an obvious choice. Luke is our only 99kg fighter, so Luke Griffith will be an obvious choice.”
The next two weight classes that John Danaher picked for the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu team lineup were at under 66kg and under 88kg, and he showed no hesitation when making his selections:
“Giancarlo (Bodoni) of course would be a prime choice at middleweight. I believe Dorian Olivarez would be an amazing addition at 66kg, I think his particular style of Jiu-Jitsu is extremely well-suited to the CJI event. He’d be a natural pick.”
As for the final space in the team at under 77kg, Danaher revealed that he might follow the example laid out by Lachlan Giles when he started to plan out the Team Misfits Australasia lineup:
“That leaves (77kg), which is… that would be the most difficult one because you have Oliver Taza, you have Davis Asare, you have Izaak Michell, and Jason Nolf, and also possibly a draft pick; the wildcard draft. I guess I’m speculating here, but I guess we’d have to have an internal trial in the gym because all of them want to go.”
It was clear from the moment that Craig Jones secured New Wave’s involvement in CJI 2 that they were going to put forward an excellent team, but Danaher really is pulling out all the stops. He’s included his team’s only ADCC world champion outside of Gordon Ryan and both of their other male medalists from ADCC 2024, making them potentially one of the strongest teams in the whole event. With their internal trial to decide the final member at under 77kg taking place at some point soon, it’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top and earns that coveted spot.
CJI 2 New Wave Jiu-Jitsu Team Lineup
Coach: John Danaher
-66kg: Dorian Olivarez
-77kg: Internal Trials winner or Wildcard
-88kg: Giancarlo Bodoni
-99kg: Luke Griffith
+99kg: Dan Manasoiu
