Luke Rockhold recently shared his thoughts on the upcoming ADCC World Championship and the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI), during an interview on the JAXXON podcast.
Known as one of the top MMA fighters in the world, Rockhold also has a strong background in grappling.
He has won gold medals at the IBJJF World Championship and the IBJJF No Gi World Championship as a colored belt and has faced some of the world’s best grapplers in recent years.
His involvement in the grappling world culminated in his recent invitation to compete in the over 80kg division of the CJI, an event directly challenging ADCC.
Rockhold didn’t hold back in expressing his opinions on the CJI:
Money talks…
It’s bringing awareness to the sport where they’ve been kind of watering it down through ADCC and it’s just getting worse and worse, and so it’s like bringing the sport to a light.
Grappling is very popular and it deserves to be paid more.
Rockhold criticized the minimal pay in professional grappling (ADCC, specifically), which he believes has hindered the sport’s growth:
The top athletes competing, killing each other month in and month out to go to this Olympics quote-unquote for $10,000 is f**king bulls*it!
You’re not going to get the best grappling, you’re not going to get the best performance.
He is optimistic that things will change with CJI:
People want to see the best of the best and this is bringing awareness to it.
Like every sport, they needed someone to stand up and Craig’s making that stand.
I’m happy to be a part of it.
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