Tom Deblass has just announced that grapplers under contract with ONE Championship will be explicitly permitted to compete in CJI 2 in 2025. It’s common knowledge at this point that the promotion have exclusive contracts with their talent that prevents them from competing elsewhere, but they do famously make exceptions for major events like ADCC and the IBJJF World Championship. They also made an exception to allow several of their top athletes to compete in the inaugural edition of the Craig Jones Invitational last year. Despite that precedent, there was no guarantee that they would be allowing them to do it again this year.
Craig Jones has actually publicly cautioned athletes against signing exclusive contracts in the past, primarily because it might take them out of the running for the event that boasts the largest prize money in the history of the sport. After all, two grapplers won a million dollars each at the first Craig Jones Invitational and that’s not something that anybody in the sport can afford to turn down comfortably. That kind of conflict is exactly the type of thing that DeBlass is in a position to negotiate his way through, as he is the current Vice President of Submission Grappling at ONE Championship.
His fellow VP Leo Vieira has previously explained that ONE Championship contracts aren’t exclusive until competitors become champions, although that wouldn’t be much reassurance for those elite grapplers that have already reached that level. Both of the Ruotolo brothers hold titles for the promotion and they are invaluable to ATOS when it comes to putting together a team. DeBlass has been able to talk to the man behind CJI, Craig Jones himself, and confirm when exactly their second event will take place so that any of their competitors under contract with ONE Championship can be made available for it.
Tom Deblass announced the news that ONE Championship grapplers would be able to compete at CJI 2 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
