During a live interview at WNO 32 in Austin Texas FloGrappling General Manager Ben Kovacs sat down with Kendall Reusing and addressed the question many in jiu jitsu have been asking, what is the current status of Craig Jones and his relationship with FloGrappling.
“What is going on with the relationship with Craig Jones and FloGrappling? What is the update?”
Ben Kovacs did not hold back confirming that the two parties have parted ways while keeping the tone positive about both Craig Jones as a person and the nature of their split.
“Craig, obviously Craig’s a friend of mine,” Kovacs said. “We do a lot of charity work together ”
“Craig came back, signed a deal last year with Flo. He was going to actually come and do a fig ht on Who’s Number One. We were going to do some other cool stuff.”
Ben Kovacs then explained why the partnership ultimately did not work out pointing to Craig Jones‘s independent nature as the core reason.
“Look, I think Craig’s Craig, right? What makes him special is not fitting in sort of that corporate box and doing what other people need him to do. So we ended up saying, ‘Hey, let’s not do this. Go focus on CJI 2.5, whatever’s happening.'”
Despite the split Ben Kovacs was clear that there is no bad feelings between the two sides and that Craig Jones actually came away from the experience with a better understanding of what Flo does for the sport.
“We have a great relationship,” Kovacs said. “I think he actually knows a lot more about Flo and all the things that Flo is doing for the sport now. So that was a good education for him, too. And yeah, things are great between us and certainly wishing him the best.”
Kendall Reusing then pivoted to Craig Jones‘s future project asking what is known about CJI 2.5 and whether there was any insight to share.
“I’ve got a little idea what he’s planning, but we’ll let him say it,” Kovacs said. “But I know the money is there and I think he wants to do something really unique and special. So I’ll leave it at that.”
