A part of the BJJ community isn’t “too excited” about the IBJJF – more specifically, about the approach the Federation takes to organize tournaments.
And it appears that Craig Jones is a part of that community.
He openly criticized the IBJJF in a recent YouTube video, emphasizing the expenses for professional athletes:
The IBJJF does something incredible, this is an incredible business model if you think about it.
Like, if I were to compete for Polaris, Who’s Number One, if I were to compete for a UFC Fight Pass event, not only would they pay for my flight, pay for my accommodation, pay me a purse; but sometimes even a win-bonus to go and compete.
The IBJJF has managed to do something truly unique: you pay your own way to the event no matter how far you have to travel.
You pay for your own hotel, and you pay registration fees.And it doesn’t stop there, because you have to pay a black belt membership too.
Again, your coach too, he can’t even corner you unless he himself pays his black belt membership card.
Jones also spoke about the IBJJF referees:
Every single judge, referee, and female mat-marshall with a big *ss is a directly from Brazil, and I would argue that each time a gringo goes out to compete, it’s essentially a 4 vs 1 match.
Obviously our opponent, the judge, the referee, and the mat-marshall; they’re all against us here and it makes it very difficult for us to be able to win a match when it’s 4 vs 1.
Listen to Craig Jones’ entire criticism of IBJJF on the video below:
