It is almost time for one of the biggest weekends in submission grappling history. August 16-17, 2024, are the days set for the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) and the ADCC World Championships, two of the most polarizing events of the year that spawned a new rivalry in the sport, that of CJI & ADCC management.
Although backstage quarrels are always important to increase the interest of the fans in these events, those subjects are best suited for social media. In this piece, we will discuss CJI’s lineup solely as we discuss ADCC’s in a future segment as well. These are as epic as epic lineups can be.
CJI will be streamed on YouTube for free, and it will feature 2 superfights outside the tournament. Craig Jones x Gabi Garcia and Ffion Davies x Mackenzie Dern.
The event will be split into two weight classes with 1 million dollars on the line as the prize money. The ruleset will be similar to that seen in the latest ADXC events, with the matches being split into 3 rounds and each round scored in a 10-Point Must scoring system commonly seen in combat sports such as boxing and MMA. In case of a draw at the end of the match, the athlete who won the last round will be determined the winner. More details on the ruleset, here.
The action will also take place on mats with slanted side walls, so athletes cannot scramble out of the combat area, in a similar setup to the Pit Submission Series designed by the creators of the Karate Kombat show.
In the Over 80 Kilogram weight class there are two clear front runners: Victor Hugo (Six Blades) and Nick Rodriguez (B Team).
Victor Hugo (90-21-0) is a 4x IBJJF world champion with the gi and the most decorated jiu-jitsu athlete in this bracket. His wrestling is not his strongest asset, but he’s made up for it so far by having one of the craftiest guards in the game.
Nick Rodriguez (36-14-4) hasn’t built his career on the tournament circuit, his path has been somewhat unorthodox with only 50 matches in his 6 years at the pro level. His talent, however, is undeniable. He has beaten some top sports players like Yuri Simoes, Mason Fowler, and Luke Griffith while also beating half of the competitors on his side of the CJI brackets in past events. Nick built his record on his wrestling base early on but has since improved all areas of the game with fantastic pressure passing and good leglock knowledge.
In the under 80-kilogram weight class, the favorites are the Ruotolo Brothers, Tye (27-10-0) and Kade (29-3-0). Particularly Kade, who has been on a tear over the past 3 years with 23 wins and two losses in his last 25 matches. Both brothers are One FC champions, both brothers have ADCC medals (Kade gold, Tye bronze), and both have similar styles. Aggressive everywhere, strong hand fighting, outside passing, and lords of the Darce choke.
Sharing the favoritism with the Ruotolos has to be Andrew Tackett (35-2-0). Tackett is on a 29-match winning streak with 23 of those wins being submissions. In the last year alone, Tackett beat Andy Varela, Tommy Langaker, Oliver Taza, and PJ Barch. He is a phenom and a force to be reckoned with.
THE CJI TOURNAMENT
Start of Bracket A
– NICK RODRIGUEZ X MAX GIMENIS
An interesting match-up. As aforementioned, Nick is one of the favorites to take home the big prize, alongside VH, but Gimenis is no slouch. Very smooth for a big man, Gimenis works best from a guard passing stance. Sadly for him, this will be a very tough position to conquer against Rodriguez, whose strength comes from his wrestling base. We expect this to be spent mostly on the feet and stamina to be a deciding factor.
– OWEN LIVESEY X MAHAMED ALI
Neither of these two competitors is a front-runner, but style-wise they make a likely barn burner of a match. Both love to scrap and wrestle, so don’t expect to see much guard work in this one. Ali is the more technical athlete on the ground but whoever is stronger on the feet should take this. The winner will likely face Nicky Rod for a rematch with the B-Team co-founder. Ali lost to Rodriguez back in 2019 and Owen drew with Nick at Quintet last year.
– ADAM BRADLEY X KYLE BOEHM
Two unorthodox grapplers who, on paper, should provide a fun match-up for the fans. Bradley is known for a scrappy style and for being hard to submit while Boehm is the complete opposite and is mostly an offense-based athlete. There is a big edge for Kyle here, given his stronger record and wins over big names like Andre Porfirio, Roosevelt Sousa, Devhonte Johnson, and Big Dan Manasoiu, to name a few.
If in good shape, Kyle Boehm is a serious contender for a semi-final rematch with Nick Rodriguez (who beat Kyle at EBI 20, 2 years ago, in the overtime).
– LUKE ROCKHOLD X PAT DOWNEY
For years BJJ athletes like Marcus Buchecha and grapplers like Craig Jones have praised former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold for his elite jiu-jitsu skills and the time has come to find out if it was just hype among friends or if Luke is the real deal. The first-round draw certainly feels like the ideal candidate to prove Buchecha & Jones right.
One of the most accomplished wrestlers on this card, Pat Downey has vowed to “debunk jiu-jitsu” and to get the job done he’s been training hard at a jiu-jitsu academy (?!), namely Vagner Rocha’s gym in Florida. Given the ruleset, and the ramped border mats (pit style), Luke’s cage experience could come in handy but, ultimately, these are two athletes with very limited competitive experience in this sport which makes it impossible to assert who takes it.
Start of Bracket B
– VICTOR HUGO X LUCAS KARNARD
Hugo is the favorite, a big man with a very technical game and the experience to boot. That said, his style (heavily reliant on playing from the bottom up) may work as a handicap under the novel CJI ruleset with the short rounds, small mat, and slanted side walls.
The first match for the Big Man Flow is Lucas Kanard, who we know very little about. He represents SWMA, a strong team in Australia and he won the ADCC Oceania & Asia Trials. Australians tend to favor the leg-lock game over wrestling. If that is the case of Kanard, this could play in Hugo’s favor. Lucas is a big underdog here, time will tell if he can cause the upset.
Stylistically identical, the two Brazilians will be among the biggest and strongest men on the card. They both come from a Gi background and like to play from the top with heavy pressure. Their only duel at the pro level was a tightly contested clash spent on the feet where nothing happened. Not a single shot was taken or a solid takedown was attempted. If the same happens here, this could be a hard match to watch for the fans.
Their size and power will be a big advantage in this ruleset, but an athlete with a strong wrestling background could be problematic to whoever comes out of this one with his hand raised.
– FELLIPE ANDREW X DANIEL GREG KERKVLIET
A big size difference here with Daniel weighing around 125 kilos and Fellipe below the 100-kilo line (55 lbs difference). A massive D1 wrestler with a curriculum as vast as Greg’s is never an easy match for anyone in this world, but as far as match-ups go, this isn’t the hardest Fellipe Andrew could have asked for. Andrew’s strongest game is offense, he attacks very well but sometimes succumbs to his fiery style and ends up getting countered, particularly with leg-locks. That threat is unlikely to come from the 2024 NCAA champ here.
– WILLIAM TACKETT X JOAO GABRIEL ROCHA
Likely the biggest size difference in the first round of CJI’s heavyweight tournament will be the clash between Joao Gabriel and William Tackett. As far as matchups go, this is one of the hardest for the Brazilian Fight Factory standout. Rocha is an ultra-heavyweight athlete with tons of experience and even gave Gordon Ryan one of the most challenging matches of his career back in 2019 at Kasai.
Joao Gabriel doesn’t compete very often these days and if there is such a thing as mat rust for a seasoned veteran, Tackett would do well to try and explore it as much as possible from the start. We can see JGR crushing Tackett’s guard with pressure, but we can also see William pulling the upset with a scramble to the back or a foot attack. Whoever takes this one is the likely candidate to meet Hugo in the semi-finals.
Start of Bracket A
– TYE RUOTOLO X JASON NOLF
No doubt Nolf is one of the best athletes on the card with 3 NCAA D1 titles to his credit in 4 finals, but if we are to take his grappling training highlights on social media as an assessment of his jiu-jitsu skills, he has a fair way to go when it comes to this sport at the pro-level.
Ruotolo is one of the favorites to win the whole tournament. He is mostly a top player and a scrambler, which plays to Nolf’s strengths very well, but despite the unfavorable style clash for Tye, he is decades above Jason from a technical jiu-jitsu standpoint and he should find a way to a submission here.
– ROBERTO JIMENEZ X LEVI JONES-LEARY
Two back takers with very opposing styles, Jimenez is a scrambler who works best towards the back from a passing stance while Levi Jones-Leary is the crafty guard player with a deadly berimbolo. Hard to predict who takes this as both players are likely to work from their preferred positions (unlikely to see Levi taking down Roberto or Jimenez pulling guard).
– LUCAS “HULK” BARBOSA X KENTA IWAMOTO
There was plenty of discussion online as to the size of Lucas and how hard his cut may be to make it to under 80 kilograms. Realistically that should not be an issue. Lucas has competed in the under 82-kilogram division with a gi on, with weigh-ins just before entering the mat (IBJJF) many times in the past, and although he is a big athlete for the weight class, day-before weigh-ins without the gi should not be an issue for the Atos representative.
Hulk is the favorite here with 246 matches at the pro level against Iwamoto’s 15. The handicap here will be how Lucas has prepared for the tournament. Kenta is a worthy opponent, very scrappy with solid takedowns and a well-rounded game which could make this a fun match for the fans.
Likely to be one of the most entertaining matches in the first round of CJI, Chen x Varela has all the ingredients for a barn burner. Both Chen and Varela have excellent scrambles and play to their offense though Jozef is the more polished grappler over Andy’s wild and risk-taking game.
Although Chen is a fan favorite, he might struggle with Varela’s style, particularly if he cannot put the Las Vegas athlete on his back and control his speed advantage.
Start of Bracket B
– KADE RUOTOLO X MATHEUS DINIZ
Hard to bet against the Man Of The Hour, Mr. Kade Ruotolo who is at the top of the heap on a 22-match winning streak in no-gi and only one loss in the past 3 years, though that was in the kimono ruleset. Ruotolo is the odds-on favorite but this is no picnic for the youngest-ever ADCC champion who will be facing the larger Matheus Diniz.
In semi-retirement since the COVID-19 pandemic, Diniz is mostly working as the head coach at the Marcelo Garcia Academy in NYC these days, but he is still a former ADCC champion and a force in the sport. Diniz has solid wrestling, great half-guard passing, and could pose a threat to Ruotolo’s status if he can get his back on the mat and keep him there.
– RENATO CANUTO X TOMMY LANGAKER
Another fan-favorite match-up between two of the most exciting athletes in the sport. Canuto is the faster of the two and very acrobatic whose style can surprise any top-shelf player with a lightning-quick submission, that said, Langaker is strong defensively, is near impossible to tap, and is the bigger athlete here. He also has a more structured game, so a slight edge to the Norwegian here.
Overall, similar dynamics to the Chen x Varela match-up.
– MAGID HAGE X EOGHAN O’FANAGAN
Two submission-oriented grapplers with a wealth of experience. We would give the edge to Britain’s Eoghan given his size.
Hage is as scrappy as they come and according to our records, has only been leg-locked once in his pro career. That happened at the latest ADCC Trials in North America. Magid is coming in with a more classical jiu-jitsu style against the leg-locking new school of submission grappling brought by Eoghan, which adds flavor to this fun clash.
A real shame to see these two future American grappling legends face off in the very first round, nevertheless a fantastic matchup worthy of a main event. The edge here is towards Tackett who has faced tougher opponents and beaten bigger names, nevertheless, Ryan has the talent to make it happen, particularly if he wins the standing exchanges or finds a way to put Tackett on his back early on.
THE CJI SUPERFIGHTS
– FFION DAVIES X MACKENZIE DERN
Two of the most dynamic world champions the jiu-jitsu world has seen and two of the most celebrated female grapplers in the history of the sport from two (not too distant) generations.
Needless to say, Mackenzie has been dedicating her career to MMA and is currently a successful UFC fighter. Despite the tough MMA training she endures daily, Dern will have a handicap to clear when facing Davies who is training solely grappling and is coming in with a 15-match winning streak. If we are to talk solely no-gi, Ffion hasn’t lost a match in her weight class since the 2019 ADCC finals, almost 5 years ago. Expect this to be a scrap and a very fun clash to follow for the fans.
Likely the first ever female versus male submission grappling match in the history of the sport. Expect a big size advantage for the female athlete, Garcia, though we are unsure how seriously this match should be taken. Competitive or exhibition match?
Jason Nolf is gonna murder Rutulo Underestimate American Wrestling if you will. “Decades above Jason”. Prepare to eat your words.