In a heartfelt revelation on a recent podcast episode, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete Owen Jones shared a touching story about the behind-the-scenes support he received from Craig Jones during a critical time in his career. Owen, who was living in the back of a gym after winning trials, revealed how Craig stepped in to help him pursue training opportunities before the prestigious ADCC competition.
“I was still living in the gym, and in the back of the gym,” Owen explained during the podcast. “I was like, ‘I want to go train at B Team, I want to go train somewhere before ADCC, and it’s like, I can’t afford to fly and rent an Airbnb, you know?'”
According to Owen, Craig immediately offered assistance without hesitation. “Craig‘s like, ‘brother, just, I got you. I’ll get an Airbnb, I’ll sort you out,'” Owen recounted.
The story becomes even more touching as Owen described arriving at the airport with his phone nearly dead, worried about finding his accommodation. “I’m, like, panicking, my phone’s on 2% battery, I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what the Airbnb is, I don’t have a charger,'” he said. To his surprise, Craig was waiting for him at the airport.
Owen reflected on the significance of such gestures in the sport: “People are doing things for people all the time in this sport… I assume, I would hope that I would do that for someone, you know, later in my future life.”
In a humorous comment on social media following the podcast clip’s release, Craig Jones jokingly remarked that these kind words from Owen “cost me $10,000” – a lighthearted reference to the support he provided.
This exchange highlights the strong sense of community and mentorship that exists within the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world, even among its top competitors. Craig Jones, widely recognized as one of the sport’s elite practitioners, has apparently been playing a significant role not just as a competitor but as a supporter of emerging talent like Owen Jones.
Jones was previously outspoken about providing support for other athletes and sponsoring a number of visas.
The British grappler also revealed that he would be relocating to Atlanta for three to four months following his upcoming Who’s Number One match against Julian Espinosa. “After Who’s Number One, there might be another match, nothing’s confirmed yet, but there might be a match between Who’s Number One and the end of April,” Jones explained. “Then I’ll go home for like a week, maybe two weeks, and then I’ll come back to Atlanta and I’ll stay there for three, four months until July.”
For Jones, the mindset you bring to training can either accelerate or hinder your progress. “I think not caring is a good thing in general,” Jones explained. “I think even in Jiu-Jitsu this is an important thing to get better—if you don’t care about getting better and like how to get better, but if you care about getting tapped or you care about winning rounds, this is also what stagnates growth.”
This philosophy stands in stark contrast to the ego-driven approach many practitioners fall victim to. Jones emphasizes that training shouldn’t always be results-based: “Everything doesn’t have to be results-based. If every training session is results-based on like ‘oh I lost that round because I got submitted or I got swept,’ you should take it a little bit further and be like ‘what did I gain from that’ and try and build from there.”
Jones points to his fellow elite grapplers as examples of this mentality in action. “I’m not an idiot, I know I get tapped, but watching guys like Joseph [Chen] and how good they are at putting themselves in bad positions, getting tapped, don’t care, keep going—they just do it just to get better.”
