So, I heard about this thing called the Craig Jones Invitational, or CJI for short, which was supposed to be some big grappling event. Sounded interesting, so I dug around a bit to see what the deal was.
First, I tried to find out when this thing was happening. Turns out, it was scheduled for August 16th and 17th. And where, you ask? Well, at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas, Nevada. Seemed like a big venue for a grappling tournament.
Then I stumbled upon something about how it was going to be streamed for free. Free? That’s a bit unusual, isn’t it? Most events like this are usually pay-per-view. So, I followed that lead and found that it would be streamed on YouTube. Easy enough, I could watch it from my couch.
Now, the name “Craig Jones” kept popping up. I figured he must be the guy behind this whole thing. I learned that he’s an Australian BJJ black belt. That makes sense, he’s putting together a grappling event, he knows what he is doing. It also got me thinking about why he decided to make it free.
I found out that he was unhappy about how much fighters were getting paid in these kinds of events. I guess he wanted to change things up. This guy Craig is the one who had an inter-gender match with Gabi Garcia at CJI 1, it is so interesting. Also, I found other people, like Jim Hassett, Josh Presley, and even someone named Elvis Presley associated with this thing. Not sure what their roles were, but it looked like they were involved in some way.
So, I set a reminder for August 16th and 17th, made sure my YouTube was working, and got ready to watch. It was pretty cool to see a grappling event streamed for free. I have to give Craig Jones props for trying something different and trying to make things better for the fighters. It’s always interesting to see how these events are put together and the people behind them. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next Craig Jones Invitational. I followed Craig Jones on his social media.
