In a recent interview with FloGrappling, Nicky Rodriguez discussed his upcoming match against Kaynan Duarte at Who’s Number One 27 on April 18th, while also addressing the elephant in the room – his decision to compete at Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) instead of ADCC.
Rodriguez, who became the sport’s first million-dollar champion at CJI, was asked directly if he regretted missing ADCC, where Kaynan Duarte won double gold.
“No because we got so many more views,” Rodriguez responded confidently. “You saw the YouTube got like almost 4 million views between the two days, so that was like absolutely incredible.”
Flograppling largely ignored the existence of Craig Jones Invitational due to a giant conflict of interests. Flograppling ultimately secured the rights for ADCC at quite a cost while the competitors were not scheduled to get any payment. The conflict with Craig Jones, forced ADCC promoters to institute a basic payment to all the pro athletes that qualified with many rumored to be securing large lump sum payments to not abandon ship.
In an interesting revelation, Rodriguez admitted that immediately after winning CJI, he briefly considered trying to participate in the ADCC absolute division the following day.
“I gotta be honest, the moment I finished my finals, I was looking at my phone, I was like I was about to text Mo like ‘Hey you should let me do the absolutes tomorrow,'” he shared. “But I was like ‘How tough would that be to go three days in a row?’ And you know you kind of sleep s*itty like in between days cuz you’re a little subconsciously anxious for the next day.”
The upcoming match between Rodriguez and Duarte has been under promoted despite the fact it’s pitting the CJI champion against the ADCC double gold champion. Rodriguez himself acknowledged the magnitude of this meeting.
“This is absolutely one of the most anticipated grappling matches probably in the history of jiu-jitsu,” he stated. “The only other one that comes closest is probably like the Gordon versus Pena dispute, but you’re talking all submissions ADCC double gold and the all submissions CJI million-dollar grappler world champion.”
The match will be a rematch of their 2019 ADCC final, where Duarte defeated Rodriguez by points. They met again two weeks later, with Duarte winning via heel hook. Rodriguez is 0-2 against Duarte but feels he’s evolved significantly as a grappler since those matches.
“I would just say since the last time myself and Kaynan Duarte have competed, I’ve gotten better in all positions,” Rodriguez explained. “I was very green… at the time I knew like how to knee cut pass and kind of how not to get rear-naked choked, and now I’ve gained an abundance of knowledge and experience.”
