Craig Jones made waves at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) with his victory over Gabby Garcia and by exposing significant issues within the grappling community. Jones openly criticized how athletes are treated by ADCC organizers, citing this as a key reason for starting his own event. He highlighted the need for better conditions and more respect for competitors, stating, "the people that run ADCC don’t really treat the athletes very well," in a post-event interview uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Amy Kaplan MMA.

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Immediately after the event concluded, Jones conducted an interview with combat sports reporter Amy Kaplan and she asked about the possibility of an entire women’s division next time around:

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“It’s obviously hard to get funding. I didn’t want to do a women’s division and pay them less. So I was like ‘let’s put on the best women’s fight we could ever put on, show how exciting the women are, and then I can use that to leverage sponsors to give them a proper million-dollar division.”

Jones also revealed that his efforts to challenge ADCC led to serious backlash, including alleged death threats from ADCC organizers as per the YouTube interview. Despite these threats, Jones remains committed to improving the sport. He’s already planning the next CJI event in 2025, where he aims to introduce a women’s division with equal pay.

Jones is clearly focused on changing the landscape of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, both by creating better opportunities for athletes and by promoting equality across the sport. His success with CJI is just the beginning of what could be a significant shift in the grappling world.