Xande Ribeiro is a legendary BJJ competitor with wins over some of the greatest grapplers of all time, and he recently went on the Everyday Perspective Podcast to give his views on the rivalry between ADCC and the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI). The two promotions have been going head-to-head recently in one of the biggest stories of recent years, and it’s all been sparked by Craig Jones criticizing ADCC over the pay offered to competitors. While ADCC offers $10,000 to the eventual champions, Jones decided to create a tournament with a million-dollar prize and $10,001 for all competitors that immediately began attracting athletes’ attention.
Ribeiro explained that he can get on board with the general idea of improving athlete’s pay, but he does have some issues with the Craig Jones Invitational:
“I think it’s a good thing that he’s doing, just on the wrong purpose and timing. I think going against ADCC is going against twenty-and-some years of something that actually gave him the platform to do what he’s doing.”
The difference in money is obviously huge and Jones has already managed to attract several top competitors to move CJI from ADCC. Xande Ribeiro was happy to explain that there were some benefits to the rivalry but he still didn’t think it was entirely positive:
“I think what he brought, it’s a great thing in the sense of ‘Hey, let’s open up the books.’ Let’s make something a little bit more clear. Because sometimes you negotiate with some people who say ‘Oh, you don’t have viewers’, well let me see the numbers. Let’s open up with that. I do understand that maybe ADCC could have maybe less production, maybe more money to the athletes, but ADCC has always treated the athletes right. This is something that I think this is not correct to say. I understand maybe the pay could be a little bit better but the approach that was taken to the show was to make a bigger show.”
It’s clear that dozens of elite grapplers will now be financially better off and in fact one of Ribeiro’s own students, Victor Hugo, made the decision to leave ADCC 2024 to enter CJI. Ribeiro addressed that too:
“Even one of my athletes, he decided to go. Maybe I would have taken the shot. Victor Hugo, he’s a big draw and I think if he does pay a million dollars, it’s a million dollars. It can change (things)…”
Xande Ribeiro then reiterated that one of issues was with the fact that CJI has been scheduled for the exact same weekend as ADCC 2024:
“I’m not behind it all, you know what I mean? Like I said, he could have done a week later, whatever. Two weeks later, a month later, and set up a standard. I think he would even benefit more if he has done after because he will have more world champions.”
He also echoed one of the other common criticisms of this decision, and it’s one that actually has nothing to do with the athletes competing in either tournament:
“And now what about 15,000 people that bought tickets. ‘Oh yeah, the athletes’ I’m like yeah, what about people that have spent $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 to make a trip to Las Vegas to a show that they’re not watching any more.”
In his final thoughts, Xande Ribeiro brought up something outside the million-dollar tournament brackets at CJI, and that was Gabi Garcia leaving ADCC 2024 for a superfight with Craig Jones:
“As far as I know three people gonna benefit from this, maybe four. Gabi Garcia, Craig Jones, and whoever makes a million dollars. I think, in a way, everyone else is losing.”
The interview with Xande Ribeiro where he discusses the situation between CJI and ADCC was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Everyday Perspective Podcast:
