CRAIG JONES

Craig Jones is the most influential Australian grappler in the history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and one of the architects of the modern leg-lock-focused no-gi competitive style. Born in Adelaide, Australia in 1991 and trained under Lachlan Giles, Jones rose to international prominence at ADCC 2017 where he won silver in the absolute division, finishing multiple top heavyweights with heel hooks during the tournament and announcing the Australian no-gi competitive style as a global force.

Jones moved to Austin, Texas in the early 2020s and founded B-Team Jiu-Jitsu, the primary competitive team that has emerged as the chief rival to John Danaher's New Wave team. The B-Team roster — Jones, Nick Rodriguez, Damien Anderson, and others — has produced multiple ADCC medals and consistent presence in modern no-gi submission grappling at the highest level. Jones's competitive style emphasizes the outside heel hook from 50-50, the inside heel hook from saddle, and a front-headlock-and-back-take system inherited from the Lachlan Giles pedagogy.

In 2024 Jones founded the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI), a submission-only tournament with a $1 million prize for the absolute champion — the largest single-tournament prize in the history of competitive grappling. The CJI was held in Las Vegas in August 2024 in deliberate counter-programming to that year's ADCC tournament, signaling Jones's intent to reshape the commercial structure of the sport. The tournament's commercial success has made Jones one of the most influential figures in the business side of modern BJJ, in addition to his continued competitive output. As of 2026 Jones remains active competitively and continues to develop B-Team as a primary competitive team.