Craig Jones

Jones was born in Adelaide, South Australia, trained in taekwondo and judo as a boy and began Brazilian jiu-jitsu at 15 at a relative’s academy; after earning his purple belt he moved to Melbourne to train under Lachlan Giles at Maromba Academy (later renamed Absolute MMA), won the purple-belt title at the 2015 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship and, after about a year at brown belt, was promoted to black belt by Giles in 2016.⁠[1]

In the first round of the 2017 ADCC World Championship Jones took the back of tournament favorite Leandro Lo and finished him with a rear-naked choke, then submitted Murilo Santana with a triangle choke, results ranked as the biggest first-round upsets of the event.⁠[2]

After placing fourth in 2017, the 28-year-old Jones submitted Ben Dyson, Mason Fowler and Jon Blank in the 88 kg division of the 2019 ADCC World Championship before losing the final to Matheus Diniz on a takedown in the second overtime period, taking silver; his training partner Lachlan Giles won bronze in the absolute division, Australia’s best showing at the event.⁠[3]

In April 2021 Jones announced that he had joined the coaching staff of season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter, whose teams were captained by UFCUFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is a mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion based in Las Vegas, United States. It began in 1993 as a no-holds-barred fighting tournament and gradually entered the mainstream after the Fertitta brothers’ Zuffa bought it for $2 million in 2001; it was sold for about $4 billion in 2016 to a consortium led by WME-IMG, and in 2023 it merged with WWE to form the publicly traded TKO Group Holdings, where as of 2026 it is one of the largest businesses by revenue.Open the full entry featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and challenger Brian Ortega.⁠[4]

Jones had joined the Danaher Death Squad in the basement of Renzo Gracie’s academy in New York before the team moved to Puerto Rico; after the team split in 2021 he co-founded the B-Team with Nicky Ryan, Nick Rodriguez and Ethan Crelinsten, opening its academy in Austin, Texas, in late 2021.⁠[5]

Around July 27, 2021, Jones confirmed on Instagram that he would keep training with Nicky Rodriguez, Ethan Crelinsten and Nicky Ryan, tagging the post in Austin.⁠[6]

In August 2021 Jones gave the first look at the B-Team Jiu-Jitsu academy in Austin in a video by CountFilms, before it opened to the public; when he had earlier announced the name on social media, many assumed he was joking.⁠[7]

At the Combat Jiu Jitsu Featherweight Worlds in December 2021, Jones submitted UFC veteran Donald Cerrone with a rear-naked choke in a superfight.⁠[8]

In June 2022 Jones swapped divisions with teammate Izaak Michell to enter the 99 kg division at ADCC for the first time; he, Michell and Jacob Rodriguez were then training together at the B-Team headquarters in Austin.⁠[9]

At the September event he beat Nicholas Meregali by judges’ decision in the semifinal and lost the final to Kaynan Duarte on points, taking silver.⁠[10]

In February 2023 Jones was a central part of Alexander Volkanovski’s camp for his lightweight title challenge against Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 in Perth, Australia; before the fight he said Makhachev was good at holding people down but did not have good submissions.⁠[11]

On March 6, 2023, Jones appeared with Nicky Rod and Nicky Ryan on episode 363 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description named the three and Ethan Crelinsten as founders of the Austin-based B-Team; topics included B-Team, winning and losing, the Danaher Death Squad, Nicky Rod’s match with Gordon Ryan, steroids, white belts and Volkanovski against Makhachev.⁠[12]

On June 29, 2023, Jones and Felipe Pena were level after regulation in the main event of UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4, and Jones won on the faster escape in EBI overtime.⁠[13]

On November 4, 2023, Jones submitted UFC veteran Gerald Meerschaert with a rear-naked choke in the main event of Polaris 26.⁠[14]

JitsMagazine announced its 2023 awards in January 2024, naming Jones BJJ Personality of the Year for reasons including the El Segundo podcast he launched early in 2023 and his captaincy of the B-Team at Quintet 4; his unusual toehold finish of Richie Martinez in the Quintet 4 final won Submission of the Year.⁠[15]

In late March 2024 Jones crossed from Poland into Ukraine and held a charity seminar on the outskirts of Kyiv attended by more than 250 people, raising about US$11,000 that went to individuals on the front line; planning to stay four days, he instead travelled east with a military escort to the Donetsk region and spent more than two weeks in the country, saying he wanted to use his profile for something good.⁠[16]

In late April 2024 Jones announced on Instagram a new jiu-jitsu tournament, showing a screenshot of nearly $3 million in funding with $1 million for each division champion; he had repeatedly criticized pay for professional grapplers and pointed out that ADCC paid division winners only $10,000.⁠[17]

In May he poured $1 million in cash onto the table on The Joe RoganJoe RoganJoe Rogan is an American podcaster, stand-up comedian and UFC commentator whose long-form interview podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, launched in 2009, is among the most listened-to podcasts in the world; he hosted the NBC reality show Fear Factor, and his show’s content and political statements have repeatedly drawn controversy.Open the full entry Experience to prove the prize money was real; the event’s website described the Craig Jones Invitational as a nonprofit dedicated to raising athlete compensation and money for charity, scheduled for August 16–17 opposite ADCC.⁠[18]

On August 14, 2024, Jones appeared on episode 439 of the Lex Fridman Podcast, whose description called him a co-founder of B-Team and organizer of the CJI tournament offering more than $2 million in prize money; topics included the $1 million in cash, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Bali, CJI, Gabi Garcia, ADCC, training camp, Volkanovski, the future of jiu-jitsu and steroids.⁠[19]

At the first Craig Jones Invitational, each men’s division winner received $1 million: Nick Rodriguez won the over-80 kg division and Kade Ruotolo the under-80 kg division.⁠[20]

On August 17 Jones submitted Gabi Garcia with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their superfight, the first match between a man and a woman at a major promotion, which Jones approached light-heartedly and controlled throughout.⁠[21]

The event streamed free on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry and drew 1.8 million viewers on the first night and 1.32 million on the second, most of them outside the United States.⁠[22]

Run as a nonprofit that donated everything above its costs, CJI, together with Kasai CEO Rich Byrne and an anonymous donor who matched its contribution, raised more than $500,000 for the cancer-research charity Tap Cancer Out.⁠[23]

Around December 8, 2024, Jones announced on B-Team’s YouTube channel that the second edition had been funded and would take place in Las Vegas in August 2025.⁠[24]

In July 2025 Jones announced his retirement from jiu-jitsu competition and that B-Team, a name born from his jokes about winning silver medals at ADCC and EBI, would be rebranded; most of the team would stay together under head coach Nicky Ryan, with co-founders Nick Rodriguez and Ethan Crelinsten still involved.⁠[25]

Olympic wrestling gold medallist Gable Steveson, booked as the opponent for what was expected to be Jones’s final professional match, withdrew from CJI 2 on August 25, 2025, with the promotion giving turf toe as the reason; in a July video Jones had said it would be his last match and that he would then leave America.⁠[26]

On August 31, 2025, short-notice replacement Chael Sonnen, a former UFC title challenger, was choked unconscious twice by Jones with a buggy choke in their CJI 2 superfight, first at 30 seconds and again within a minute of the restart; Jones had also beaten Sonnen when they met in 2017.⁠[27]

That night B-Team beat New Wave on a tie-breaker in the final of the $1 million team tournament, and Helena Crevar won the $100,000 women’s tournament.⁠[28]

On September 15, 2025, Steveson said on The Ariel Helwani Show that some stipulations in their negotiations had not been agreed and implied that Jones had wanted him to throw the match; Jones promptly replied on Instagram, asking how someone could agree to a “work” and then have to pull out of a work because of injury.⁠[29]

In February 2026 Jones announced that he would headline the third Craig Jones Invitational against Dillon Danis, with the date and location yet to be announced; he had headlined both previous editions himself.⁠[30]

B-Team Jiu Jitsu: Official website: https://bteamjj.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[12]