The second edition of Craig Jones‘ invitational tournament (CJI 2) concluded its opening day amid significant controversy and criticism from two of jiu-jitsu’s biggest names. Gordon Ryan and Mikey Musumeci took to social media to voice their displeasure with various aspects of the event highlighting concerns about judging, format decisions and overall entertainment value.
Gordon Ryan’s assessment came through a series of Instagram posts where he questioned the tournament’s bracket structure and alleged bias in the competition.
“So, let’s get this straight, atos and new wave have the most adcc golds/medals by a landslide, yet are on the same side of the bracket? Holy bias lmao,”
he wrote highlighting what he perceived as unfair tournament seeding.
Ryan’s criticism intensified with accusations of systematic bias throughout the event. He claimed he
“advised my entire team against this bias, b—s— event, as the team competing picked the refs, judges, and commentators.”
The former ADCC champion went further alleging that submission calls were questionable:
“Never in history has a tap, in any ruleset, EVER consisted of a single tap on the body. It is ALWAYS 2,3 or more taps.”
Perhaps most pointed was Ryan’s take on the submission rate:
“Day 1- about a 5% sub rate across the board. Going sick so far,”
sarcastically noting the low finish rate that plagued the opening day of competition.
Mikey Musumeci offered a different angle. Rather than focusing only on alleged bias he criticized the quintet format and advocated for a return to traditional structures.
“The biggest thing this event showed was the cjj / ufc Bjj format is the most exciting. The quintet rules are a lot more boring unfortunately,”
Musumeci wrote.
“IMO the girl matches have been the best of the whole event because they are the og rules! Let’s vote to make the semis for the men tmw like wrestling duels/ kasai people in their actual weight compete with each other. With CJJ rules! PLZ 😭🙏”
When fans questioned changing formats mid-tournament Musumeci doubled down while engaging in pointed exchanges with event organizer Craig Jones.
Tournament organizer Craig Jones responded tersely to Musumeci’s suggestions:
“Yeah let me change the format at midnight.”
The comment which drew strong engagement underscored the practical impossibility of major structural changes during an ongoing event. Jones also pushed back on critiques telling Musumeci:
“I see you’re not reading your contracts again brother,”
hinting at previous disagreements.
Despite the blowback CJI 2 appeared to draw strong viewership. The event surpassed 1 million views organically and maintained a live audience between 80,000–100,000 viewers through the broadcast even with the low submission rate that drew criticism. Questions arose about the event’s broadcast partnership with FloGrappling. The service appeared to have ads ready despite a supposedly sudden change in broadcasting announced just two days before the event which led to speculation that the partnership was planned in advance.
Day one closed with several major teams advancing to day two. New Wave, Atos, Team Australia and B-Team moved forward. New Wave progressed past Team America, Atos advanced over Team Europe, Team Australia edged 10th Planet and B-Team advanced over Daisy Fresh in closely contested team competitions.
The women’s bracket also progressed with Sarah Galvão defeating Ana Carolina Vieira and Helena Crevar beating Adele Fornarino to set up tomorrow’s final. Crevar caught quite a bit of flack for coming out with pigtails flopping around and was ultimately asked to get the situation under control.
One can only hope that CJI 2 day 2 delivers in terms of entertainment value.
