The Craig Jones Invitational, aka CJI, is back for 2025 (here's a full recap of 2024's inaugural CJI)! CJI 2 will be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 30th-31st at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center.
A Quick Backstory on CJI
Here's the tl;dr on what the Craig Jones Invitational, or CJI, is... Craig Jones is one of the top athletes in Jiu Jitsu, and over the years was a frequent competitor at the prestigious ADCC (Abu Dabhi Combat Combat Club) tournament which liked to bill itself as "the Olympics of grappling."
In 2024, reporters and athletes kept asking Craig if he'd be competing in that year's ADCC. He said he'd consider it if they raised the prize money for athletes (at that point they were paying just $10,000 to winners of an extremely difficult event). ADCC basically told him to pound sand, and start his own tournament if he thought the athletes should get paid more...
and so he did! An anonymous backer put up $3 million for the inaugural 2024 CJI event, and Craig Jones had the first Jiu Jitsu tournament that paid $1 million to two different weight classes (as well as $10,001 to everyone who showed up, as a not-so-subtle jab at ADCC's top payout of $10,000).
We flew out to Vegas with the whole Gold BJJ squad to hit both CJI and ADCC, and have to say that CJI 1 was a smashing success. The fights were incredible, the vibe was 10/10, and it was the most exciting weekend of grappling in history.
Of course fans were wondering if it was a one-off, or if Craig could pull it off again. He has, and that's what leads us to the 2025 Craig Jones Invitational aka CJI 2.
CJI 2: Confirmed Competitors
2025's Craig Jones Invitational is going to be a team based event, rather than an individual event. There will be 8 teams battling it out:
- B-Team
- New Wave
- Atos
- 10th Planet
- Pedigo Submission Fighting (aka Daisy Fresh)
- Americas
- Europe
- Australasia
Here are a few of the confirmed team lineups, we'll continue to update these as they are announced...
CJI 2: Women's Division
Initially, no women's division was announced for CJI 2. This sparked a lot of debate and controversy, with Ffion Davies (one of the athletes from the first CJI) stirring up some backlash at Craig Jones for not elevating female athletes this year.
Ultimately Craig Jones was able to put together an additional $100,000 for a 4-person women's division. The confirmed female competitors so far are:
- Helena Crevar
- Adele Fornario
- ???
- ???
CJI 2: Prize Money
Last year's CJI paid out well over $2 million to competitors ($1 million each to Kade Ruotolo and Nicky Rod, plus $10,001 to all athletes, plus unknown superfight purses).
This year's prize pool will be smaller with $1 million being split between the winning team, and $100,000 going to the winner of the 4-person women's division.
The Craig Jones Invitational Ruleset
As with last year, CJI 2 is a no-gi Jiu Jitsu event.
While the exact ruleset hasn't been announced, here's a copy of last year's ruleset for reference. The rules this year are expected to be similar: multiple rounds with open judges scoring, taking place in the unique grappling pit that prevents annoying referee resets.
CJI 2: What to Expect
The inaugural CJI was such a success, and people certainly have high hopes for 2025's event. While the prize pool is a bit smaller, it's still the event with the most buzz this year in the Jiu Jitsu scene and we're excited to see how it turns out. We'll continue to update this page with any news or confirmed changes to the event.
