Luke Rockhold surprised many BJJ fans when he was announced as a competitor in the over 80kg division of the Craig Jones Invitational.
Rockhold scored the invite after a stint at Karate Combat and several sessions in which he impressed Craig Jones.
In a recent episode of Sean O’Malley’s podcast, Craig Jones opened up about the underrated grappling skills of former UFC champion Luke Rockhold.
“Rockhold’s a wild card,’ Jones said.
Jones added, “If you take a bad shot on him, he can sprawl a Guillotine and triangle you out of there so fast. His history of training with guys like DC and the Dagestan crew has really honed his ground game.”
The upcoming CJI tournament, which features a million-dollar prize purse, has generated significant buzz within the grappling community.
And it seems Rockhold isn’t taking his camp lightly. Overnight a clip surfaced of Rockhold’s training with UFC sensation Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev is known for steam rolling most of his UFC opponents with elite wrestling and significant submission skills.
Overnight, the bracket for CJI was relased and Rockhold is matched with Pat Downey . Downey was in Bellator for a while but he’s mostly known as a great wrestler. Downey even attempted to make the US team for the ongoing Olympic Games but sadly fell short.
