Craig Jones has never been short on ideas, but not all of them make it past the drawing board. In a conversation on the Jits and Giggles podcast, the Australian grappling star pulled back the curtain on a concept for CJI 2.5 that was equal parts satirical and genuinely considered.
The premise? Craig Jones would compete against seven Uber drivers for $10 million.
“You know what we were going to do for CJI 2.5?” Jones said. “I was going to compete against seven Uber drivers for $10 million because exclusive contracts ruined our event and my buddy does not care about money. And we were like, that would be funny.”
The concept grew out of frustration with the exclusive contract landscape that Jones says effectively crippled his ability to build CJI into the event he envisioned. With the sport’s top athletes locked up by organizations like UFC BJJ, Jones turned his frustration into a thought experiment that spiraled into an actual plan, at least briefly.
“We thought it’d be funny if we were like, we’re going to pick eight people, they could be anyone, and then we were like, you know what would be hilarious is we just did the UFC model and we were like, well who’s non-exclusive? Uber drivers drive with Lyft. So we’re going to go Uber drivers. And then they’re obviously not under exclusive contract.”
“I was going to exclude every jiu-jitsu athlete and be like, why would I build up the brand of an athlete? I was going to take it somewhere else. So I was going to pick seven Uber drivers and take $10 million for myself.”
He added, “That’s deadly serious as well.”
The idea was ultimately shelved. Jones confirmed that CJI 2.5 and CJI 3 are both canceled for the time being, though he left the door open for a revival.
“The TV show might bring back a CJI,” he said, referencing a travel show currently in development that he described as funded but largely under wraps.
The frustration Jones expressed was clear. He had hoped CJI could become an annual marquee event, nonpartisan and widely supported, donating profits to charity while giving away life-changing prize money. Exclusive contracts, he said, made that vision impossible.
“We wanted to be the Super Bowl. We wanted where everyone could support us and we’d be nonpartisan. But that did not work out.”
