Nicky Rodriguez recently surprised everyone by giving some insights into the financial success of the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational (CJI). Not only is Rodriguez one of the B-Team Jiu-Jitsu co-founders alongside the promotion’s main man Craig Jones, but he’s also one of the champions from that event. He was one of two men who walked away with the grand prize of a million dollars, after he stormed to victory with 4 submissions in the over 80kg division. One of the biggest questions around the event beforehand was whether or not it was going to be able to cover costs, as Jones revealed early on that it was done with $3 million in funding.
Although Nicky Rodriguez was one of the first to join the CJI lineup, he was still unsure about that decision early on:
“I was super skeptical. I was like ‘brother, it’s 3 months away. You’re literally gonna do it on the same exact weekend as the ADCC world championship…’ and I was like ‘Bro, is the money even real?”
He clearly got over his reservations, and he explained the thought process that led up to that decision as well:
“It was a pretty hard decision early on because since I started Jiu-Jitsu, my only goal was to win ADCC and be number one pound-for-pound. So I was definitely torn but then once I realised and got confirmation that like yeah it’s gonna happen and the money’s real, I’m like f**k it. With that kind of money, that becomes the most valuable tournament in Jiu-Jitsu. It’s like $10,000 to win your weight class vs $1 million? It’s incomparable. I think the only guys that didn’t do it were confident that they couldn’t win, or they got paid a s**t-ton of money.”
The key point was when Rodriguez explained how much the entire event cost to produce though. With a million dollars in prize money for the winner of each bracket and $10,001 to show for all 32 competitors, it was always going to be an expensive event. Rodriguez gave a little insight in to how well the event did against the significant outlay required to create it:
“They spend $3 million pretty much, a little over $3 million. And they made it all back, and then some. which is impressive for a three-month event.”
The full interview with Nicky Rodriguez where he discusses the financial success of the inaugural CJI was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Casuals MMA:
