Craig Jones Invitational Brackets Revealed!

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First-round brackets for the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) were released earlier this week for the upcoming grappling tournament on Aug. 16-17 from inside Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to the $1 million grand prize, CJI will also pay out $50,000 for “Submission of the Night.”

CJI will run head-to-head with ADCC 2024, also being staged in “Sin City.”

Check out the first-round brackets below:

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

Minimum prize purse for each competitor is $10,001.

In addition to the bracketed showdowns, CJI will also feature a pair of super fights, starting with former ADCC champion Mackenzie Dern taking on defending ADCC gold medalist Ffion Davies. Elsewhere on the card, event organizer Craig Jones battles nine-time world champion Gabi Garcia in a special crossover match.

For much more on the upcoming CJI tourney click here.