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.
Former UFC middleweight world champion Luke Rockhold has been confirmed for the Craig Jones Invitational on August 16th and 17th, 2024. Although Rockhold’s primary career has been as an MMA fighter, his phenomenal grappling skill was a huge part of his success and he’s been able to compete with elite grapplers in the past as well. He actually faced Nicky Rodriguez in the main event of Polaris 12 and he managed to take him all the way to a decision in a very tough match. He will now be competing in the over 80kg division at CJI and so far, the only other competitor announced for the lineup is ADCC Trials winner William Tackett.
Rockhold actually originally started as a grappler, learning Judo as a child before moving on to wrestling during his time in school. That eventually gave way to Jiu-Jitsu and Rockhold was able to compete at a very high level during his journey through the colored belt ranks, winning an IBJJF World Championship as a blue belt and an IBJJF No Gi World Championship as a purple belt. That was when he turned his attention to MMA instead, working his way up to the very top of the StrikeForce middleweight division to become their final world champion before the promotion was absorbed by the UFC.
He added the UFC middleweight world title to his collection a few years later and eventually retired from the sport with an impressive 16-6 professional record in 2022. He’s since pursued other combat sports and was even going to face Craig Jones in a grappling match, although that was unfortunately cancelled. Now he’s going to return to grappling once again but with a far bigger prize on the line if he’s able to win, as Jones has secured a million dollars in prize money for every division at his invitational. Even though it’ll be tough for Rockhold to beat several elite grapplers on the same night, he’ll still be one to watch as the over 80kg bracket unfolds.
The Craig Jones Invitational announced that Luke Rockhold would be competing in the over 80kg division in a recent post to their official Instagram account: