Craig Jones has shaken up the grappling world, and he has Joe Rogan to thank for it. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor has decided to challenge the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) tournament this year. It’s the first real challenge to the tournament in its over two-decade history. ADCC is the premier tournament for BJJ and is quite commonly called the Olympics of grappling.

However, since the ADCC barely pays its participants, Jones came up with the idea to hold a rival tournament in the same week in the same city as the ADCC. This year will be the first edition of the Craig Jones Invitational tournament that will take place in Abu Dhabi on 16-17 August.

CJI will have a $1 million grand prize for the winner. Jones carried the prize money with him and showed it in a briefcase on Rogan’s podcast. That clip has now gone viral.

Jones, in a recent interview, tipped his hat to Rogan for giving him a platform despite the podcast host’s affinity for BJJ maestro Gordon Ryan and his financial support for ADCC.

“I mean that’s the thing with Rogan, right? So if you build a career fighting the man, ultimately, if you become successful enough you kind of become the man. So I would say Joe Rogan was super generous, giving me his platform to sell the event considering obviously the platform he has, his love for the sport, and him supporting ADCC. So I can’t thank him enough for really allowing me to do that and slam the million dollars on the table and go viral,” Jones said.

Fans, of course, will remember that Rogan had sponsored the entire ADCC 2022 tournament. Despite this affinity with the ADCC, the UFC commentator had no issues giving Jones a platform to market his invitational tournament. This perhaps is because of the deep respect and esteem he has for martial artists.

Rogan does think the martial artists should be paid well and has even spoken out in favor of the UFC having competition, as it will give the fighters more options. And he has certainly helped grapplers get paid more.

Craig Jones explains how Joe Rogan helped pro-BJJ fighters get paid more

Further on in the interview, Jones promised fans “the best weekend of their life in terms of grappling”. The 33-year-old pointed out that because of the CJI and its decision to pay fighters, the ADCC felt the threat which led to them rethinking their stance.

“ADCC, as a result of all this, has changed their business model to compensate the athletes and find the money. I would say I think Joe Rogan probably now understands where we were coming from given his comments about the Olympics and how much money they put into production and how the athletes don’t really get paid anything,” Jones added.

The grappler even seconded Rogan’s recent comments about the Olympics being a ‘scam’ as the athletes didn’t get paid anything despite the astronomical costs involved in organizing the quadrennial event. Jones went to the extent of saying that the Olympics were a great analogy for the ADCC’s model.

Do you agree with Craig Jones? What do you think about the CJI challenging ADCC this year? Share your thoughts in the comments.