In a surprising move, Craig Jones, renowned for his silver medal wins at the ADCC submission grappling tournament in 2019 and 2022, announced via Instagram that he won’t be competing at this year’s event. Instead, he revealed plans to take on an unconventional role as a percussionist.

“I’ll still be at ADCC, but in a different capacity,” Jones stated in the Instagram video. He humorously mentioned the bongo players from previous events, noting that they earn more than the grapplers. Hence, he humorously declared his intention to join them and play the bongos.

As first reported by the Jits Magazine, Jones’ talk about how he isn’t going to compete at ADCC 2024 started on Reddit:

Guys call me crazy but Thomas and Mack Centre is 20k capacity for audience and T Mobile is 20k.
T Mobile costs 2 million to rent and Thomas and Mack much cheaper.

I think we the athletes deserve to be paid more than the guys that hit the drums.
I ain’t doing ADCC. I’m a g*d d*mn karate guy.

He went on to explain how the comparison between Olympic Games and ADCC being the Olympics for grapplers doesn’t make sense:

Guys it is true that Olympians don’t get paid for their participation or their medals.
However, it’s the f*cking Olympic games.

If you go to any person on earth and say: “I was in the Olympics”, they go: “Wow! The Olympics?!”

If you go to any person on earth and say: “I’m in the ADCC”, they’re gonna say: “First of all, what the f*ck is the ADCC?”

Jones concludes by saying that he will be at the ADCC, but on the sidelines:

One final thing to leave it. Obviously I’ll be there coaching.
Give my invite to (Jacob Rodriguez), one of the most exciting grapplers in the world.

He was so good at ADCC Trials, he got 7 submissions at the previous ones to enter the event, he had a close match with Pedro Marinho.

Give this man my invite, it’s the right thing to do.