“Those guys juiced up to head!” UFC star picks Craig Jones’ $1 million prize Jiu-jitsu tournament over reputed ADCC

Last month, Craig Jones’ Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) and its rival competition, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC), went head-to-head. The competition between the inaugural CJI event and the veteran ADCC event attracted a lot of attention, including that of UFC welterweight fighter Gilbert Burns. Interestingly, Burns named CJI as the best for him over ADCC.

Craig Jones experienced significant success on the opening night of his competition. Gilbert Burns, a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, praised CJI at a recent press conference. He even expressed interest in competing in CJI if given the opportunity. In doing so, Burns also pointed out the differences in the rules between the two competitions.

I love the CJI rule set you know, it’s like the MMA. I would love to do the CJI you know, ADCC is kind of like, those guys are juiced up to the head and the rules and then the I might get cut, you might get hurt. But the three five minute round CJI, I like you know. I do that a lot you know so I like, better for me than ADCC
Gilbert Burns via UFC Vegas 97 pre-fight presser

The inaugural event of CJI saw several top fighters of the world, including Craig Jones himself. Jones fought against Gabi Garcia in an intergender super fight and eventually won via submission, to sum up the night. Additionally, former UFC champion Luke Rockhold also competed in the event. Along with him, Mackenzie Dern, current UFC women’s strawweight fighter also came in for a fight.

Such a star-studded event performed as it was expected to be. Interestingly, several controversial factors also helped the CJI to catch everyone’s attention. The revelation of the death threat messages from ADCC to the viral face-off kiss are some of them. Amidst the controversial moments, there was a possibility of another super fight to further popularize CJI.