First-Round Brackets Announced for Craig Jones Invitational with $1 Million Grand Prize
The bracket has been revealed for the first round of the Craig Jones Invitational on Aug. 16-17 from inside Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The winner of the tournament will receive $1 million, while the event will also hand out $50,000 for “Submission of the Night.” The event goes head-to-head against the ADCC which is considered to be the best grappling event in the world.
Ahead of the event, here are the first-round matchups were revealed.
Under 80kg:
Tye Ruotolo vs. Jason Nolf
Roberto Jimenez vs Levi Jones-Leary
Lucas Barbosa vs. Kenta Iwamoto
Jozef Chen vs. Andy Varela
Kade Ruotolo vs. Matheus Diniz
Renato Canuto vs. Tommy Langaker
Magid Hage vs. Eoghan O’Flanagan
Nicky Ryan vs. Andrew Tackett
Over 80kg:
Nicky Rodriguez vs. Max Gimenis
Owen Livesey vs. Mahamed Aly
Adam Bradley vs. Kyle Boehm
Luke Rockhold vs. Pat Downey
Victor Hugo vs. Lucas Kanard
Inacio Santos vs. Pedro Alex
Fellipe Andrew vs. Daniel Greg Kerkvliet
William Tackett vs. Joao Gabriel Rocha
The minimum prize purse for each competitor is $10,001, according to MMAMania.
Some notable names in the field are former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold as well as grappling legend Nicky Rodriguez.
Craig Jones set to grapple Gabi Garcia
Along with the $1 million grappling event, Craig Jones will also be grappling MMA fighter Gabi Garcia in an intergender matchup.
It will be a highly-anticipated matchup and in the lead-up, Jones says he likely won’t even train for the match.
“I’ll take her on. I feel good. I probably won’t train for her, I’ll be planning this damn event… I won’t train that hard. I’m happy she is doing it, though. We’ve been talking about this for two and a half years. Feels like an arranged marriage or something,” Jones said (via BJJee.com).
The plan for Craig Jones is to make this event an annual one.
