Craig Jones drops retirement bombshell and announces his own BJJ event with $1 million prize money
Craig Jones appears to have turned the corner in his Brazilian jiu-jitsu career, as the Australian recently 'confirmed' his retirement and created his own BJJ event.
Jones has grown into one of the sport's biggest stars over the past decade, and aside from his superb BJJ skillset, his self-deprecating style of comedy has seen him adored by fans.
He recently ruled out his appearance at the 2024 edition of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Championship, the world's most prestigious no-gi grappling tournament.
The former two-time ADCC silver medalist highlighted a lack of financial benefit as the main reason for his decision, noting that the $10,000 prize money for coming in first place has been the same since at least 2014.
During a recent Instagram video, the Australian appeared to confirm his retirement while announcing he would host a BJJ event in Bali. He said this:
"So as you all know, I retired from the sport. I was out here minding my own business, tending to my rice paddies in Bali, when we had some problems with ADCC. I decided to call in some favors and just run my own event."
He continued:
"We won't release the date yet, but we'll run two 16-man tournaments - $1 million prize money. To show up, we'll give $10,001 - ADCC pays $10,000 for first prize - so I thought it'd be funny if we just give them $10,001 to show up."
Watch Craig Jones' video below:
WATCH: Craig Jones chokes out opponent... twice?
Craig Jones headlined The Pit Submission Series 4 against UFC welterweight contender Rinat Fakhretdinov on April 20th.
It was the Australian's second appearance at Karate Combat's newly-created Pit Submission Series event, and he secured another triangle finish.
Having amazed fans by submitting another UFC welterweight, Philip Rowe, with a flying triangle in his previous appearance, Jones needed a second bite at the cherry against Fakhretdinov to secure his win.
In the footage shown of the finishing sequence, the BJJ star can be seen locking up a triangle choke before telling the referee several seconds later that he thought his opponent was unconscious.
After releasing the choke slightly due to the referee intervening, it was determined that Fakhretdinov had not been put to sleep, and the match was restarted. After this, Jones swiftly applied another triangle choke, which left his opponent unconscious.
Watch Craig Jones submit Rinat Fakhretdinov below: