In an exciting announcement made directly from Dubai, Craig Jones revealed his plans to host a special seminar to support the athletes competing at the upcoming ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) World Championships. The ADCC is a prestigious submission grappling tournament held annually, attracting the best grapplers from around the world, however only the winners will receive financial compensation.
Prior to ADCC 2024, even the organizer himself acknowledged the need to update the prize money, which has stayed the same since the event’s inception more than 20 years ago.
“Generally speaking, the prize money, it hasn’t changed since 1998 ever since the beginning. So it was very good back then. That is one thing. Will probably have a conversation with them about hopefully for this one is maybe, hey, let’s upgrade the pay grade for this one,” said Jassim.
No new info has been released since that interview which aired prior to January 2024 and is no longer available.
Jassim wasn’t the only one to admit that the ADCC prizes have stagnated. Gordon Ryan also made a call for the prizes to be updated, despite his close personal friendship with Jassim.
After the statement started receiving traction, Ryan recanted.
He went from advocating for this:
“My biggest thing to build ADCC is doing an amazing job, obviously. But you have to, you have to increase the prize money, in my opinion,” Ryan said. “I think I think that you either have to increase the prize money so drastically that it’s like by far the highest payment in spend, like grappling events, period.”
“The entire brand of ADCC is built on being the best of the best. Either leave it or increase it exponentially. As the end of the day, the owner of ADCC owes us nothing. He’s doing this to help grow the sport. Ever watch we’ve watched him literally take years off his life dealing with the stresses of this event, literally tell him all the time to simply leave and focus on his life happily, since all he does with is this sport, helping run associations, stabbing cockroaches He sticks in there because he truly wants to help the athletes the lives and just ultimately grow what We as people owe us nothing. ”
Jones acknowledged the substantial costs involved in organizing the ADCC event, which often leaves competitors who lose on the first day without any compensation for their efforts. Determined to address this issue, Jones announced his intention to host a seminar in Las Vegas the Thursday before the ADCC weekend.
The Australian grappling star shared that 100% of the profits generated from this seminar will be directly allocated to the athletes who unfortunately lose their matches on the opening day of the ADCC tournament. By doing so, Jones aims to ensure that these dedicated competitors do not go home empty-handed, recognizing the immense sacrifices they have made to participate in such a prestigious event.
Jones extended an invitation to all grappling enthusiasts, urging them to attend his seminar not only to support the competitors but also to witness his exceptional coaching and gain invaluable insights into the art of submission grappling.
Previously, Jones raised the question of why ADCC was renting out the T mobile arena, and not the Thomas and Mack center.
