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.
Roberto Jimenez has just become the 8th grappler who was originally due to compete at ADCC 2024 and has now left in order to enter the Craig Jones Invitational instead. Jimenez is undoubtedly one of the most exciting competitors in the sport and he’s become incredibly popular as a result, stepping on the mats for pretty much every major promotion over the last few years. There have been some big names like Nicky Rodriguez making the switch over to the CJI over 80kg division already, but Jimenez is another huge announcement and he will almost certainly be sorely missed at ADCC.
Jimenez competed at ADCC for the first time in 2022, where he entered the under 77kg division and went 1-1 in his promotional debut. He has improved a lot since then though and reached the highest point of his career so far in 2023, when he won the absolute division at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship. That meant that he was riding a huge wave of momentum coming into ADCC 2024 and he was one of the top contenders at the event, even after it was announced that he would be moving up two weight classes in to the under 99kg division this time around.
Although it will undoubtedly come as a shock to many that Roberto Jimenez is leaving ADCC 2024 in order to compete at the Craig Jones Invitational, it’s a decision that could have been predicted. Not only is he popular enough to warrant an invite to any major tournament, but he’s also been open about his issues with pay in the sport in the past. It makes sense that Jimenez would choose to compete in the upcoming Craig Jones Invitational then in that case, as the tournament offers $10,000 just to step on the mats and the grand prize for the winner of each division is a million dollars.
The Craig Jones Invitational announced that Roberto Jimenez was leaving ADCC 2024 in order to compete at their event in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
