Craig Jones has apparently mended his rift with ADCC, as he has just put himself forward as a late replacement for ADCC 2026. There’s no news from the promotion on whether or not they’ll be taking Jones up on the offer but obviously it would be an excellent idea. There are few people on the sport who can generate more interest in an event than Jones, and the fact that he rarely competes these days makes it an even more exciting idea for the fans. It doesn’t hurt that the division he would be entering is without a returning champion, so Jones would immediately be a top contender in it.
The only reason the idea has come up at all is that Jacob Rodriguez has had to withdraw from the ADCC 2026 lineup and there is now a space available in the under 88kg division. This is the ideal division for Jones, even though he did move up to the under 99kg division when he last competed at the event back at ADCC 2022. Prior to that, Jones competed at under 88kg for three consecutive editions of the tournament. He holds a solid record there too, going 5-4 in the division and coming away with a silver medal back at ADCC 2019.
Jones also went 3-1 and took a silver medal at under 99kg in 2024, despite being a bit undersized against most of his opponents. He has only gotten better in the years since those two silver medals too, so he would almost certainly find his way to the podium once again. The biggest sticking point is going to be his relationship with ADCC itself, as he did go head to head with them when he put together CJI 1. With no Craig Jones Invitational this year though, that might help put him back in the promotion’s good books.
Craig Jones shared the news that he was interested in competing at under 88 kg at ADCC 2026 in a recent post to their official Instagram account: