"Get ready” - Craig Jones drops bombshell announcement about CJI 2025 and promises major changes to the tournament format

Craig Jones has officially confirmed that there will be a second edition of the invitational tournament he created in 2024, aptly known as the Craig Jones Invitational. The first edition of the competition took the grappling world by storm, with a mammoth $1 million prize given to the winners of each division.

Many of the world's best grapplers featured at the CJI, which took place in August 16-17 in Las Vegas. The Australian organized the entire tournament within a few months, and it would be safe to assume that with a full year to prepare, he will be able to secure even more high-profile names for the second edition of the CJI.

Jones admitted trying to sign combat sports superstars such as Charles Oliveira and Alexander Volkanovski to compete at this year's edition. Whilst it's unclear whether MMA fighters will be included in the CJI 2, the founder has promised big format changes.

He took to Instagram and wrote:

"@cjiofficial 2 confirmed. Get ready for massive format changes."

Jones continued:

"I'm here for a massive announcement, this announcement comes at a very important time given the boring a*se grappling events that on this weekend. I have received funding for CJI 2 and can confirm August 2025 in Las Vegas. Last time I received a gift of $3 million, gave it all away like an absolute f**king idiot. This time I've had to borrow that money. Potentially from some bad people."

Check out Craig Jones' announcement below:

---

Craig Jones fires back at Mikey Musumeci for PED-comments

Mikey Musumeci, who was scheduled to compete at CJI 1 in 2024, recently got into a back-and-forth with Craig Jones online following the American's comments about performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the sport.

Jones has openly admitted to using PEDs, and with drug-testing not a common trend in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he isn't the only one. But 'Darth Rigatoni' is determined to change that with the UFC's help.

Musumeci made his UFC Fight Pass debut on Dec. 5. While talking to media ahead of the match, he said:

"Other people like Gordon [Ryan] and Craig [Jones], they definitely help the sport grow in different ways. But I feel like what I'm doing right now is definitely the most important thing for grappling in terms of having a stable platform."

Check out Mikey Musuemci's comments below (3:30):

Jones shared a Michael Jordan-inspired response on his Instagram story, which was reposted to X by @jiujitsuotter:

Check out Craig Jones' response below: