Roger Gracie is one of the greatest BJJ competitors of all time and a recent interview saw him giving his opinion on the ongoing rivalry between ADCC and the Craig Jones Invitational. Gracie is in the very rare position to give a qualified opinion on the topic thanks to his status as a triple crown champion at ADCC and the very first member of the ADCC Hall of Fame. Although he has a pretty clear bias towards the promotion, he was refreshingly honest in his assessment of the situation and he genuinely took the time to consider his answer.
He isn’t the first top competitor to weigh in on the topic and he certainly won’t be the last to do so either. Roger Gracie was asked about it in an interview with Raphaella Amorim and he started out by listing some of the negative aspects he sees:
“Well, it is hard to judge but I think it’s sad for the sport, right? I don’t know exactly what, Craig Jones wants to try damage the ADCC, right? I think it can be a championship with multiple defects, several complaints, but one thing is certain about it… It leveraged a lot of athletes, right? It became a very important championship for athletes, so it has one very big meaning. You are now an ADCC champion, I think that gives you a leverage in your career. For the athlete it’s important. So I think he’s trying to end this. I think athletes harm themselves. Although he’s trying to say that he’s doing this for the sake of the athletes, for him to increase the awards and all, but it has a damage.”
Roger Gracie did explain that there’s some positives behind the Craig Jones Invitational as well and even though he might not be a fan of it going head-to-head with ADCC, he clearly sees the benefit in the tournament itself:
“It’s a really cool thing. Never in Jiu-Jitsu, a million dollar award. That’s unique. This is very important for athletes… An athlete can be a champion, winning a million dollars changes his life. But to do it on the same day as the ADCC, everyone harms themselves. I think looking this side; I’m not much in favor, no.”
He’s not alone in this line of thinking either, as fellow ADCC Hall of Famer Xande Ribeiro had some similar thoughts. Amorim also asked Roger Gracie directly whether he would compete at ADCC or the Craig Jones Invitational and he clearly found it difficult to answer:
“Look, it’s a very difficult decision. I think there are other things that would have to be taken into consideration. I think it’s hard for you to ignore a million dollars but at the same time, until when do you want support something that has a negative side… I would have to put it in the balance at the time. If it was the first ADCC, if I had already won several then I don’t know, it’s hard to know. And how much would I need that million dollars? So you have several factors there, but I think the trend would be more to ADCC because it would already be a championship that, well it’s already growing in prestige. But a million dollars is a million dollars… It’s a lot of money to ignore, but I don’t know what I would do.”
Raphaela Amorim uploaded her full interview with Roger Gracie where he discusses the rivalry between ADCC and the Craig Jones Invitational to her official Instagram account:
