Chris Wojcik has made his stance clear – when it came time to choose between UFC’s new jiu-jitsu initiative and Craig Jones’ rapidly growing Craig Jones Invitational (CJI), he went with the latter.
In a recent appearance on The Simple Man podcast, Wojcik explained why:
The UFC was kind of being difficult to work with. They were not communicating the details of the show very well. I pulled out like a week before I was supposed to leave and I still hadn’t seen a contract. They were like: “Oh yeah, you’re leaving on this date”, but they didn’t say “here’s your flight” or “this is a contract you got to sign”.
That lack of communication wasn’t the only factor.
The UFC’s push for exclusivity in their contracts also gave Wojcik pause:
The exclusive contract thing was…
I mean, I just felt like it was not smart for me to sign an exclusive contract.
Then there was the money.
Wojcik weighed the financial upside of competing in CJI and came to a straightforward conclusion:
I mean I am, I guess, biased to CJI because Seth and Craig are putting on CJI but also I was looking at how much money CJI is if you win and the UFC is like…
With enormous reach and audience engagement, the CJI is fast becoming the most visible stage in submission grappling:
It’s like the Super Bowl right now in jiu-jitsu.
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