Craig Jones has never shied away from controversy. Recently he took part in an excellent MMA Hour interview and shed lights on what it’s going to take for BJJ to deliver life changing income for the competitors.
When asked about the potential for million dollar paydays in jiu-jitsu, Craig Jones expresses skepticism about the ability to sell big PPV events for submission grappling.
“I just don’t think I mean people like grappling but no one’s canceling their Saturday night plans to stay in and watch your grappling match. I think seven figure paydays, pretty tough to pull off,” Jones said.
He elaborated: “Oh, I mean, maybe if we find a foreign warlord with deep enough pockets, we can fully take advantage of that. But I think right now there’s only a few people that are grappling that really, I guess, say, move the needle. You know, Gordon obviously being the key factor there, but there hasn’t yet exist. “
“Gordon’s been on top for a while now. We really haven’t seen another guy even come close to moving the needle like he does. So I’m I’m sure we’d need another Gordon Ryan level figure to be able to get seven figure pay. I just yeah. I just don’t think I mean people like grappling but no one’s canceling their Saturday night plans to stay in and watch your grappling match”
Jones previously delivered an interesting criticism of the rules various events have, and how this might be stopping BJJ from getting to the next level in terms of publicity. He explained:
“Obviously it’s a long, grueling match, especially for guys of that way. I would definitely love to see him do it again. And obviously we all love to see both Felipe and Nicky Rod take on Gordon Ryan, again.”
“But again, I think shorter duration matches, what do we want, we want to guys to try to kill each other for 10 to 15 minutes, that is exciting. When the matches are too long, we start to pace ourselves.”
