Elite wrestler Pat Downey has just revealed that he has already been told that he has a place in the lineup for the second edition of the Craig Jones Invitational in August 2025. Given that Craig Jones and the rest of his team have just 8 months left to put together their sophomore effort, it makes sense that they might be contacting prospective competitors already. Downey was one of the biggest names competing in the over 80kg division of the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational and he delivered plenty of entertainment, so he was an obvious choice to return for another attempt at a million dollars.
He recently took part in an interview where he was asked about his experience competing at the event and that’s when he revealed that he would be returning for the second edition:
“I’ve gotten so much better from that, it was a great learning experience with all the opportunity. They’ve already told me I’m in it, so I’m ready to go. CJI 2 in August. I’m definitely going to run that back and, you know, redeem myself and get that million. That’ll feel good!”
One of the biggest storylines developing in the world of professional Jiu-Jitsu right now is the UFC getting more involved in the sport by signing athletes to exclusive contracts. Although for many competitors this has been seen as a positive move in their career, the downside is that exclusive contracts can prevent them from competing at events like CJI. Jones himself has actually spoken out against exclusive contracts in BJJ too, and it seems like Downey has been paying attention. He revealed during the interview that he wanted to keep the ability to compete wherever he wants, other than his exclusive UK deal with Polaris:
“I’ve intentionally not signed any exclusive deals. I have an exclusive deal with Polaris, but that’s only in London, so I compete only for Polaris in the United Kingdom. Other than that, I’m a free agent. I’m my own entity. I’ll go wrestle, I’ll go grapple with Fury (Pro Grappling), and then I’ll go to Spokane Submission (Series) in Washington. If UFC Fight Pass wants me on, if FloGrappling wants me on, if ONE Championship wants me on… I’m not in an exclusive deal, so CJI is definitely happening again.”
This actually echoed some of Downey’s sentiments when we spoke to him on an episode of JitsCast recently, where he also went into more detail about his experience at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational. It’ll be exciting to see Pat Downey return for CJI 2 as well, especially with a whole new lineup full of interesting matchups for him. He was open with us about the fact that Nicky Rodriguez is one of the opponents that he’s most interested in facing, although it remains to be seen whether Rodriguez will be invited to return after winning the inaugural CJI.
The full interview with Pat Downey where he reveals that he has been invited to compete in CJI 2 in 2025 was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Home of Fight:
