Craig Jones has recently shared his views on contract negotiations and the challenges facing professional grappling.
Jones first stressed the importance of understanding the terms of their contracts before committing to them:
Please, for the love of God, read your contracts.
I cannot emphasize this enough.If a promoter sends you a contract, please take the time to read it.
Jones also addressed recent comments by Mikey Musumeci, who has called for stricter PED regulations in BJJ.
Jones criticized what he sees as hypocrisy – in simultaneously supporting exclusive contracts that centralize control over major events:
Don’t grandstand about steroids while simultaneously signing contracts that allow organizations to monopolize the sport.
“That’s what we fought back against with ADCC, who were selling massive amounts of tickets, getting massive amounts of views, and not paying any of the athletes.
The Australian grappler also expressed concerns about the potential for monopolization within BJJ as larger organizations enter the sport:
We cannot allow sporting organizations to step into our sport after viewing the success of CJI and seek to monopolize it by locking everyone down into exclusive contracts and putting it behind a paywall.
He further emphasized that BJJ is at a crucial juncture and warned against prematurely stifling its growth through restrictive practices:
Our sport is not there yet.
We’re just now reaching the potential of the growth of the sport.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.
