Video summary
Craig Jones asserts that he has successfully addressed what many perceive as a decline in UFC wrestling, attributing his success to exposing a fundamental flaw in traditional wrestlers' game plans: they possess elite takedown initiation skills but lack effective follow-up strategies once on the ground. He describes this dynamic as "jocks versus autistic people," noting that while wrestlers excel at bringing opponents down using American folk-style techniques, they often become confused and passive upon reaching the mat because their training does not account for grappling scenarios where a fight continues after a takedown. Jones argues that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners naturally dominate these situations due to high social intelligence and technical depth in ground fighting, effectively turning what should be a wrestling victory into an opportunity for submission or control. To counter this specific weakness, Jones employs a strategy of immediate de-escalation upon being taken down, simply sitting up rather than engaging in defensive scrambles or attempts to escape the bottom position. He views this approach as both humorous and humiliating for wrestlers who dedicate their lives solely to takedowns without considering what happens if they fail to pin an opponent immediately. This tactic is designed to exploit the psychological confusion of his opponents; when a wrestler charges forward expecting resistance, finding Jones sitting calmly disrupts their rhythm and reading ability. He even incorporates visual distractions into this strategy by wearing feet tattoos intended to confuse opponents who may be dyslexic or simply unable to process unusual stimuli during high-stakes moments, thereby gaining an unfair advantage through psychological warfare rather than pure athletic exertion. Beyond individual fight tactics, Jones details a significant corporate maneuver involving the grappling organization ADCC and its host platform Flow Grappling. After feeling slighted by decisions made at previous events where he faced petty issues with organizers, his team hosted their own event simultaneously using external funding to demonstrate superior execution. The fallout from this conflict led to what Jones describes as a "corporate takeover," wherein he signed the most lucrative contract in grappling history to join forces with Flow Grappling and assume control of its operations. His goal is not merely financial gain but rather saving the sport from potential monopolization by large enterprises that could stifle athlete leverage, reduce paydays, and diminish production quality if they controlled every major event under a single championship banner like UFC or one specific grappling promotion. Looking toward the future of professional sports entertainment, Jones advocates for borrowing theatrical elements from WWE to elevate real grappling matches into compelling spectacles similar to Japan's former Pride FC events. He believes that excitement in combat sports is driven less by raw action and more by invested storylines that make fans care about individual athletes regardless of whether a specific fight features high-level technique or dramatic flair. By creating divisions with clear narratives, such as the CJI versus another entity dynamic he previously utilized to great effect on CGI 1, promoters can ensure audience engagement even during slower-paced bouts. Ultimately, Jones aims to merge the technical integrity of grappling with the narrative-driven production values of professional wrestling to create a sustainable ecosystem that rewards athletes fairly and keeps fans entertained in an era where market monopolies threaten to homogenize content and reduce incentives for innovation.
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Yeah, I've heard that you've fixed the
UFC's wrestling problem. I heard that
you've solved it. Yeah. I mean, yeah,
everyone's UFC's on the decline. Too
many boring ass wrestlers taking over
the division.
So, UFC basically called me. They said,
"Hey, like, can you help us out? Can you
help Jack Dela beat Bal Muhammad?" And
we just fixed his wrestling overnight.
So, now we got exciting strikers taking
the belts. What's the strategy? How do
you beat wrestling?
I mean, first of all, you're not going
to have the most intelligent human being
in the sport of wrestling like some of
us articulate
uh high social skills people in
jiu-jitsu. You know what I mean? It's
basically jocks versus autistic people.
We're going to win the war. You know
what I mean? And uh really it's just
they have the takedown, they have the
initiation, but they have no follow-up.
They're confused. They It's like a dog
chasing a car. They don't know what to
do once they get it. In wrestling, they
get the pin. It's over. The referee
saves them. They stand back up. That's
where jiu-jitsu takes over. So, it's a
huge hole in their game. We'll forget
about American folk style wrestling
completely and we'll just talk about the
broader type of wrestling. But yeah, for
me it's not a big problem. Get taken
down. That's what we take over.
Sit down. So, sit is sitting down a
solution. Yeah. I mean, that's that's
kind of the joke of the sport. Imagine
if you spent your whole life dedicated
to an art where the goal was to take the
other person down, but you never spent
any time, thought, or effort into
thinking what you'd do if the fight
continued on the ground. That's the most
funny, humiliating thing to me about the
sport of wrestling. So, how do you think
a fight with Gable Stevenson is going to
go? Like, just roll the clock forward
for me. Roll the clock forward. Um,
again, handicapping myself, I've decided
to uh not train for this match, just
like I didn't train for the Gabby Garcia
match. Show the same level of respect
for both Goliath opponents there. And
really, I'm just going to come out, sit
down. He's going to come forward. He's
Well, first of all, he's going to just
be like, if he could read, he'd be
angry. You know what I mean? But he's a
wrestler, so he's going to see that
feet. He's going to be trying to read
it. Bit confused, maybe a bit aroused.
comes forward and gets leg glove
straight away. That's basically my
vision. And uh I'll try and show some
mercy here, you know, like um we've done
a lot of damage this year to wrestling,
Americans in general as well. So maybe
we let him out of a few or we'll
definitely we'll definitely take him
out. But he's 265 lbs. How heavy does he
need to be before it becomes hard for
you to do as a wrestler? Well, that's I
mean that's part of the training
protocol. you know, we're finding
heavier and heavier uh dating partners
to fill the experience of being under
such a heavy creature. And I know you've
pointed me in the right direction at
some bars in Austin where we'd find
those. Mhm. And Gable is just the next
iteration of this. But yeah, basically
he's like a giant athletic woman that
can do hands down back flips. He can do
some athletic maneuvers. Mhm. So unless
he unless he in the midst of trying to
read for the first time falls over and I
see. So your your feet tattoos are an
attempt to try and confuse people. To
confuse him. Yeah. Right. Not only so it
insults the people that can read and
confuses the ones that can't. Yeah.
Little known fact, a lot of wrestlers
are dyslexic.
Okay. Does that change the way that they
wrestle?
I don't know. But the feat will
definitely throw a spanner in the works
room. thing. What was the fallout from
ADCC around cuz presumably that happens
every two years? Every two years. So
that's not going to be a a competition
this time around. So it'll be easier to
get more teams, more people, more
spectators,
etc. Yeah. So like last year we went
headto-head. We were mildly offended by
petty things the owner said. So we
decided to host an event the same day on
someone else's uh with someone else's
money which is always the best tactic as
you know at Newtonic but really the full
out was I think we decisively won but
this a good opportunity actually 80CC is
on flow grappling and I have just signed
I would say and it's not saying much the
most lucrative contract in grappling
history to now join forces and
essentially take over Flow Grappling.
So, it's kind of a corporate takeover.
So, Flow Grappling hosted ADCC. They had
the uh subscribers. I went on a
malicious onslaught of an attack against
ADCC and as a result, Flow Grappling as
well. We tore them down to a point of
vulnerability that now the only person
they could call for help was me.
Essentially, a corporate takeover. And
now they've basically given me the reins
to save grappling. So, so what have they
done? What's the deal?
Um, I can't talk too much about it. Uh,
flow grappling usually is a like it's a
streaming platform to host events and
original content. CJI will remain free
on YouTube. I mean, I'm basically going
to run the operation now. We're going to
fix the damage we did. We're going to
try and get the fan base back. Okay.
You've you've caused the problem and now
you're selling them the cure. Exactly.
Sounds like my dating life as well.
Really? But um that's the gaslighting
coming back in. The gas lighting come
back. Yeah. No, but we're working we're
working together with FL now, you know,
because there are big enterprises trying
to enter the sport of grappling and
they're trying to lock athletes down to
exclusive contracts. Re again, like
they're going to try to monopolize the
sport of grappling and grapplers where
there's barely $3 to throw together as
it is. If this big organization were to
monopolize the sport of grappling, the
athletes themselves would lose the
leverage for negotiations and getting
their true value from the different
events out there. Like obviously we got
one championship as well. The big three
would be one championship, flow
grappling, and UFC fights, right? So if
one of these were to take over
completely and create a monopoly, then
they would not have any incentive to pay
the athletes more. You're able to
negotiate you. Where else are you going
to go? Yeah. Or even put more effort
into the spectacle of grappling. Like my
thoughts are if fake grappling is one of
the most entertaining things in the
world, WWE, why can real grappling not
be that? Mhm. And I believe that's the
root of professional wrestling was they
used to actually have real matches but
it was too boring for the fans to watch.
So they decided to have real matches
behind the scenes and then the winner of
that would determine the winner of the
professional show. No way. Yeah. And so
we we're trying to steal I want to steal
the theatrics. Obviously Vince McMahon
personal hero of mine. I'm really trying
to steal what he did for professional
wrestling minus his personal life and
bring that to the sport of jiu-jitsu.
And I think if we borrow from
professional wrestling with a spectacle
even in the history of MMA like in Japan
they used to have an event called Pride.
Pride ultimately got shut down because
of Yakuza connections but they used to
put on an incredible spectacle of an
event. They used to put a lot of effort
into the production into creative ideas
to hype an event. So me being the
promoter, being the promoter of this
event, I'm trying to push the envelope
and creating excitement in the event and
I'm worried that if any one of these
organizations were to get a monopoly,
well then there's really no this is
there's no reason for them to push the
envelope of the events, athlete pay,
because they've already controlled the
market. What else can be done to make
grappling more exciting?
I mean, here here's the thing.
Anything's exciting if there's a story
line, you know, like. So the more we
invest in the story that whether it's
fake or real, the more we get people
invested in each of the individual
athletes or the teams, whatever, the
more excited you are going to be to
watch it take place. Like there's been
some boring MMA fights and boxing fights
out there, but the hype has been so good
that even though even when you're
watching the live event, you're sort of
on the edge of your seat. So as long as
we invest in the story line and build up
the event, CGI had a CGI 1 had a huge
benefit because it was the story was
basically CJI versc. So we created this
division and people were invested in
picking a side. So we need to leverage
story lines like that to invest uh
people's time and energy into actually
watching the event whether the match is
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you very much for tuning in. Enjoyed
that clip. The full episode is available
right here. Which one?