SEPTEMBER 1, 2025, THOMAS & MACK CENTER, NEVADA, USA. Last night we had the opportunity to witness the most anticipated no-gi event of the year, the Craig Jones Invitational 2 (CJI2), a two-day tournament-style meet between some of the biggest squads in grappling who duelled for a 1 million cash prize.
Although the first day saw very even clashes and more strategic performances between the superstars on the mats, the second day showed much more of an open and aggressive grappling game, more subs and bigger scrambles, likely due to an increase in pay laid out by the CJI management for the second day, a 50k bonus for anyone who got a finish.
NOTE REGARDING THE RULES
The rules of CJI may have been the toughest detail to follow throughout the event, and a reason why (we believe) submission-only is not the way forward for this sport. How confusing can we make it for new fans? Read this article until the end to find out.
In an attempt to clarify the rules for our readers, we will set out the basic guidelines: Although every match that didn’t end in a submission was officially declared a draw by the Smoothcomp website (the official website of the event), these were, rather, double elimination clashes, and a victor was indeed decided as per mat-side judges.
A double elimination procedure was applied to any match that didn’t end in submission, meaning both athletes exited the mat and could not continue in that round of the Team Duel. Nevertheless, the matches were scored by three judges, and a winner was elected by using a “10-point must” system where the winner took 10 points and the loser, 9 or fewer. These results were only activated in case the duel ended with either double elimination or a tie on submissions. So, for example, if a Duel had five double eliminations, the matches were scored and the total presented like we would see in MMA or boxing, i.e., 50-45, 49-48, 49-48, etc. This system begs the question: If the winner of these individual matches is released, shouldn’t this released score count as the official result, rather than the draw? We have asked this question to CJI and await a reply; in the meantime, they are stated as draws as per Smoothcomp.
CJI2 also provided a female Grand Prix with the biggest cash prize in the history of the sport. 100k for the winner. Below is our report on the action, as well as the official results of all the matches.
CJI 2 ¼-FINALS REPORT
NEW WAVE VS AMERICAN GORILLAS
This was a somewhat atypical clash as we had two teams with a few athletes who don’t train at these gyms on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. The Gorillas were meant to represent Greg Souders and his famous Ecological Jiu-Jitsu learning approach taught at his school, Standard JJ, but the squad had a few outside players, such as Elijah Dorsey (Team Lloyd Irvin) and the Brit, Taylor Pearman (Los Banditos), in its roster.
John Danaher’s squad was also missing a few key players from the New Wave headquarters and therefore resorted to outside contractors, namely, Vagner Rocha (VRMA) and Mica Galvao (Melqui Galvao Escola de JJ). In the purist sense of Team vs Team or coaching style vs coaching style, this clash didn’t make as much sense as we would have hoped for. Nevertheless, some big names and big matches on display.
Overall, we saw Mica Galvao, arguably the star of the New Wave crew, underperform against Deandre Corbe, a very competent opponent, no doubt, but an athlete who often competes two weight classes below Mica. The Brazilian was able to squeeze a “win” according to the judges, but not in the dominant fashion many expected.
This clash also provided the biggest upset of the event and one of its biggest controversies in Taylor Pearman’s submission over Giancarlo Bodoni. A match awarded to the Londoner, despite Bodoni’s rejection of the referee’s interpretation of his “tapping” movement.
– Luke Griffith drew with Pat Downey
– Vagner Rocha drew with Elijah Dorsey
– Giancarlo Bodoni def Gavin Corbe via RNC
– Taylor Pearman def Giancarlo Bodoni via Outside heel hook
– Dorian Olivarez drew with Taylor Pearman
– Mica Galvao drew with Deandre Corbe
New Wave advanced via decision wins after a draw in the number of submissions.
ATOS VS TEAM EUROPE
Another Team Duel with a few athletes who didn’t originate from the team’s workgroups. In this one we saw as Diego “Pato” Oliveira, who trains and competes for team AOJ (not Atos), as well as Charles Negromonte and Paul Ardila, who were not European athletes (Brazilian & American). Nevertheless, the show must go on, and the squads (and audience) benefited from the added talent, no doubt.
This was not one of the prettiest of clashes from an entertainment perspective. Very tight matches overall, but with a clear winner in Atos.
– Lucas Barbosa drew with Pawel Jarowsi
– Ronaldo Junior drew with C. Negromonte
– Kaynan Duarte drew with Owen Jones
– Felipe Pena drew with Marcin Maciulewicz
– Diego Oliveira drew with Paul Ardila
Atos advanced via decision wins after a draw in the number of submissions.
TEAM AUSTRALASIA VS 10TH PLANET
This was the most fun team duel of the quarter-finals, and despite there being a small chance Fabricio Andrey had ever set foot in Australasia, we, the fans, all won by having him included on the team. His match with Alan Sanchez was one of the most action-packed and entertaining matches of the event, as was Declan Moody’s clash with Ryan Aitken, and Kenta Iwamoto’s masterclass in his Passer Vs Leglocker clash against the much heavier Kyle Boehm. Truly exciting matches in this one, worth re-watching.
– PJ Barch drew with Lucas Karnard
– Declan Moody drew with Ryan Aitken
– Alan Sanchez drew with Fabricio Andrey
– Belal Etiabari def Geo Martinez via Straight ankle lock
– Kyle Boehm def Belal Etiabari via Inside heel
– Kenta Iwamoto drew with Kyle Boehm
Astrolasia advanced via decision wins after a draw in the number of submissions.
B-TEAM VS DAISY FRESH
B-Team, led by Nicky Ryan, outperformed the Daisy Fresh Squad, also known as Pedigo Submission Fighting, a workgroup guided by Heath Pedigo. A few interesting clashes in this team duel. We saw B-Team’s Million Dollar Grappler, Nick Rodriguez, beat Brandon Reed with an RNC, after a slight off-balance from the American Wrestler had his back exposed for a split second, a chance not lost by the extraordinary back taker that is Rod. Rod went on to compete against Michael Pixley, who gave him a good run for his money and proved to be a very tough puzzle to crack for the CJI Season 1 heavyweight champ.
– Jozef Chen drew with Max Hanson
– Nick Rodriguez def Brandon Reed via RNC
– Nick Rodriguez drew with Michael Pixley
– Jacob Couch drew with Chris Wojcik
– Victor Hugo drew with Dante Leon
B-Team advanced via Nicky Rod’s submission win.
CJI 2 SEMI-FINALS REPORT
NEW WAVE VS ATOS
One of the most anticipated duels of this event was the clash between John Danaher and Andre Galvao, a team rivalry that has been one of the healthiest and competitive in no-gi jiu-jitsu over the past 5 years.
The squads went neck and neck in the initial matches, but NWW team captain Giancarlo Bodoni pulled a beautiful armbar out of the hat after a dominant performance over Ronaldo Junior and placed New Wave in the final.
– Kaynan Duarte drew with Vagner Rocha
– Mica Galvao drew with Lucas Barbosa
– Luke Griffith def Diego Pato via RNC
– Felipe Pena def Luke Griffith via Armbar
– Dorian Olivarez drew with Felipe Pena
– Giancarlo Bodoni def Ronaldo Junior via Armbar
New Wave advanced with 2 submissions vs 1 by Atos.
B-TEAM VS AUSTRALASIA
Fun matches here, particularly Kenta Iwamoto vs Nick Rodriguez, a clash worth re-watching. Iwamoto was on fire this weekend, a shame we don’t see him compete more often.
Somewhat outnumbered from the get-go due to a diminished Belal Etiabari, who suffered an injury against Kyle Boehm in the quarter-finals, Australasia had a lot of ground to cover and, unfortunately for them, B-Team was very strong, particularly with the addition of Victor Hugo (a team member of Six Blades who competed as a guest for B-Team). Hugo stole the show in the semi-finals with two Duel-winning submissions in the final rounds of the meet.
– Chris Wojcik drew with Lucas Karnard
– Nick Rodriguez drew with Kenta Iwamoto
– Declan Moody drew with Ethan Crelinsten
– Victor Hugo def Fabricio Andrey via Katagatame
– Victor Hugo def Belal Etiabari via Katagatame
B-Team advanced with 2 submissions.
CJI 2 FINAL REPORT
B-TEAM VS NEW WAVE
Former teammates clashed in what the majority of grappling fans had hoped to be the final of CJI2. This perfect setting for a final team duel saw former members of John Danaher’s workgroup, the famous DDS, clash in very exciting clashes.
Many expected grappling super-star Mica Galvao to run through some of B-Team’s athletes, but, once again, the Brazilian prodigy wasn’t able to impose his game and struggled to beat the tricky guard of his opponent, Wojick. After Galvao came outstanding performances by Dorian Olivarez and Giancarlo Bodoni, who dominated their opponents positionally, though without scoring the all-important submission.
New Wave appeared to be on its way to a victory in the final, after conquering 3 clear wins (one possible 10-8 in the Olivarez vs Crelinsten clash) against B-Team’s two clear victories, as the rules pointed to the team with the most decision wins taking the victory in case of a draw in the subs. Sadly, it seems as though there was some disparity between the rules set on the event’s website and the athletes’ contracts, which gave way to confusion and controversy.
– Mica Galvao drew with Chris Wojcik
– Victor Hugo drew with Vagner Rocha
– Dorian Olivarez drew with Ethan Crelinsten
– Giancarlo Bodoni drew with Jozef Chen
– Nick Rodriguez drew with Luke Griffith
B-Team was officially awarded the victory; more on that result, below.
According to the result announcer, the victory wasn’t decided for the team with the most decision wins, but rather, for the team with the most points overall in the head-to-head clashes. Here, the judges had given Nick Rodriguez a 10-8 win over Luke Griffith, with every other match on the final being scored a 10-9. This meant equal overall points for both teams.
Now, as there was a draw in points, victory was given to the team that won the final match, in this case, B-Team (Nick Rodriguez vs Luke Griffith), and indeed, Nicky Ryan’s squad was awarded the championship and the 1 million prize money… But the story didn’t end here, as the athletes’ contracts, apparently, had different rules from those stated on the event’s website.
The contracts were partially revealed by a member of the New Wave Team, Gordon Ryan, through his social media account. In his posts, he showed what appeared to be contracts stipulating the Duel Team winner would be decided 1st by the most submissions in head-to-head clashes, OR, in case of a draw in finishes, the most decision wins, and not most accumulated points. Given the whole controversy that was generated in the 12 hours that followed the tournament, in an incredible turn of events, Craig Jones has publicly announced he would award New Wave an equal prize of 1 million dollars.
FEMALE CJI 2 145 LB TOURNAMENT
Running alongside the Team Duel of CJI2 was the female tournament, a 4-challenger event with the prize money of 100k dollars for the winner. The tournament was an outright success with a lot of fun exchanges and exciting matches, although not without some controversy in the semi-final match between Crevar and Fornarino. A very close match, many believed, should have been decided in Adele’s favor.
The final was a fast-paced affair between two old rivals, Galvao and Crevar. The match was very even until the final move, where Helena managed to lace up Sarah’s foot for a nasty Aoki lock finish.
– Sarah Galvao defeated Ana Vieira via decision
– Helena Crevar defeated Adele Fornarino via decision
– Helena Crevar defeated Sarah Galvao via Aoki lock
SUPER-FIGHT
– Craig Jones defeated Chael Sonnen via buggy choke.
