Craig Jones hints at Gordon Ryan's team featuring at $1million CJI tournament in 2025

A second edition of the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI), founded by his namesake, has been confirmed for August 2025. The submission grappler took to YouTube to share the news, and revealed a change in format from the first CJI that took place in August 2024.

The first edition of the competition featured two weight divisions, which saw the winner of each weight category win $1 million each. But the second edition of the CJI will consist of a quintet-style team event, with the winning team receiving $1 million.

Surprisingly, the Australian noted that New Wave Jiu Jitsu, the team of his arch-rival, Gordon Ryan, may be competing at CJI in 2025.

Jones recently took to YouTube to share details for next year's submission grappling tournament, and said:

"For CJI 2, we're mixing it up. We're gonna do 8 teams battling for $1 million. Last time we found out who the two best athletes in the world were. That was Kade Ruotolo and Nick Rodriguez. We paid them both $1 million. Now we're going to find out who is the best team in the world? Atos, New Wave, B-Team, Check Mat, Gracie Barra, 10th Planet. Whatever teams, and let's see who truly is the best team in the world. Quintet style, last man standing."

Check out Craig Jones' comments below (9:30):

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Gordon Ryan claims Craig Jones is the reason why the Danaher Death Squad broke up

The Danaher Death Squad (DDS), headed by grappling coach John Danaher, took the Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) world by storm from 2011-2021. The team dominated matches using revolutionary techniques, mainly targeting leg submissions, until their split in 2021.

Both Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones were part of the DDS team. However, Ryan and Danaher stayed together following the split, starting a new team known as New Wave.

Jones also started a team called B-Team, and both squads have maintained a rivalry since.

During a recent appearance on Jake Shields' podcast, Ryan discussed why the DDS broke up, blaming the Australian, as he said:

"Craig's whole thing is that if he can't beat you, if he can't beat something or win at something, he'll try and destroy it. He couldn't beat me, so he joined the [Danaher Death Squad] and then he broke the team up. He couldn't win ADCC so he tried to crush ADCC, he's just a very vindictive. Craig's Instagram persona is the exact opposite of what Craig is in real life."

Check out Gordon Ryan's comments about Craig Jones below (39:25):