September 19, 2025 • 30 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
A good martial artist does not become tense, but
ready.
Essentially, at this point, thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
I'm ready.
Cji 2, the recap.
(00:35):
The truth boots on the ground.
I've got the insight.
I was there, the story's behindthe stories.
You just got back a couple ofdays ago.
I literally got back yesterday,bam, and so I was in San
Francisco for a couple of daysbefore CJI2, went down to Vegas,
connected with Jack, shut outyoung blood, and then we, yeah,
(00:56):
we're at the event andconnecting with folks in Las
Vegas, caught up with Benny fromPartisan, his partner, and,
yeah, just seeing people allaround the town, which is always
cool.
I think that's the great vibewith an event like this, because
also, world Masters is onJiu-Jitsu Con, so you've got
like 13,000 people plus allcoming for that.
(01:18):
Cji planned it around that samekind of deal, piggyback like
they did last time ADCC and shit.
Yeah, it was strategic in thatway, but it was also a long
weekend.
It was like a bank holiday onMonday, so it was so like it was
very busy.
Yeah, right on.
Yeah, what was the vibe cominginto it like the expectations
(01:39):
were very high.
I think the expectations weresuper high.
The hype was legitimate becausehaving a team's event, you're
like this could be the bestthing.
This could be the best thingever.
This could be even better thanthe first cji.
Imagine that.
Yeah, pardon me, but whichwould prove to be a curse.
Yeah, how fucking good thefirst.
(02:01):
I think it is so difficult todo the follow-up so you could
just say that.
But there were certain thingsabout the first cji which made
it great and those things werenot present.
Well, so well, let's talk aboutthat.
What made cji number one sogood?
You were there, we're boththere.
It was fucking great.
The, the five rounds, uh, orfour, like three rounds or five
(02:24):
rounds for the final, yep.
And the scoring Having thescoring, undoing, scoring right,
yeah.
Letting us know at the end ofthe round the judges think
so-and-so's ahead, yeah, whetheryou agree with that or not, you
know where the match is at,yeah.
So if you know that oneperson's up two rounds and
there's only one round to go, orthree to, you're like, well,
fuck, they need to put out thesubmission, send it.
Yeah.
And that emphasis on actionmeant the matches were action,
(02:47):
yeah, and there was a lot of useof the alleyway, the wall, yeah
, and that was fucking exciting.
Yeah, it was cool, you know.
And also the fact that therewas one match on and everyone
was focused on that, yeah, so,coming into CJI 2.
, it was also like.
One of the other things thatplayed strongly is that it was
like a.
It was a revolutionary event.
(03:10):
Yes, it was.
You know what I mean it waslike, but it was the way, the
way the event was framed.
It was a whole rebellious thingagainst, and everyone's like,
fuck you, this is sick, this issome underground shit Changing
the game.
Yeah, and everyone's like, fuckyeah, this is sick, this is
some underground shit Changingthe game.
Yeah, you know which, you wouldhave to say.
(03:30):
A little bit of that sort ofsheen had worn off by the time
the second event came around.
I don't think so.
No, I understand thatperspective, but I think what
people were excited about wasthe potential matchups, because
you didn't know who would getmatched with who, and so that
means you could get some reallike, like the absolute.
Maybe Fabrizio Andre fucking,fucking launches somebody way
(03:54):
bigger than him, and that'sfucking exciting.
But unfortunately, the rule setrewarded stalling.
The rule set rewarded stalling.
And this is the biggest letdownof the whole tournament was
really, if you looked at how togame it, all it took was for one
member of a team to get asubmission and then the rest of
(04:15):
the matches could be stallinglike stall outs, and then that
team would win and you're like,surely they're not going to do
that?
But that, ladies and gentlemen,is what they did, and you know
if you, if you're like surelythey're not going to do that,
but that, ladies and gentlemen,is what they did.
And you know if you, if youwatched it, I tell you what
being there, it was a five timesmore frustrating than watching
it on YouTube.
Yeah, like I, you know, likethe vlog where Jack was there
(04:40):
filming the vlog and there wereso many times he'd like cut to
my reaction and I'm just like,like, like it wasn't me being
like woo.
Yeah, like I was just like man,fuck this.
It was so disappointing becausethe bigger guys there was some
really good kind of sizematchups and you've got to give
credit to like a guy like OwenJones or like any of the smaller
(05:03):
guys who did really wellagainst bigger guys, but the
bigger guys knew all they had todo was just control, just make
it to the end.
Yeah, I'll get subbed, yeah,and if they'd already got a sub,
then that was it.
And so, yeah, it's aninteresting point, the vibe from
day one was pretty average Dude.
I was like so I'm a big fan ofquintet, as you know, and one of
(05:26):
the things that quintet doesthey penalize.
They fucking.
They're so hardcore with thepenalties, like that, like they,
they slap hands, go, and iffive seconds later no one's done
anything, referees like penalty, penalty, if you get three
penalties it's disqualification.
And then they just drive asathletes like fuck, I gotta do
something, and they just makeshit happen, right, and day one
(05:48):
we saw no penalties.
Like the referee did notintervene once, yeah, and look,
even you know, as we all know,like craig had to get online,
offer extra money, yeah, andthen also say, yes, we're
bringing in quintet-esque rulesto penalize well, it was already
there, it was already a quintetrule set I to penalize.
Well, it was already there, itwas already a quintet rule set.
I didn't know that that was itwas, and I didn't know either,
(06:10):
but it was actually a co-labbedquintet event, right, and and
they were like we're followingthe quintet rules here, and so
we were like fucking sick.
And then, when the day oneplayed out, we're like you
didn't enforce that key part ofthe rules.
So then I think there was a lotof backlash online and, as a
result, look more people, look,the stadium is probably only
(06:31):
half full.
Day one there was more people.
Day two, I think people wouldcome from Jiu Jitsu con and it
was like people would come forthe finals.
But, yes, day two started waybetter.
Yeah, so that ref, the baldheaded guy, yeah, the one that
the one that galvan had beefwith, yes, because he, fucking,
he switched it on, on, on.
Was it hulk, which, yeah, hulkversus, uh, not joseph chan?
(06:52):
Was it joseph chan?
Maybe it was last year, no, no,but I was thinking it was a
similar thing.
It was somebody with a profoundguard game.
Could have been, because it wasathos versus team williams.
Uh, in the the day two.
So, anyway, to the, to the site, yeah, so, yes, uh, team new
wave, I call them team williams,aega, forgive me.
So, so that that red hulk wasstalling and so to turn it over,
(07:16):
and that ref was like it couldhave been against mika.
Okay, yeah, right.
And that ref was like fuckingdishing out penalties and it was
like, fuck, yes, they've turnedit around.
And people got excited, yeah,okay.
And you could feel thatwatching it Like it brought the
energy up and you're like, oh,it's on now, this is what we
wanted to see.
But then big John McCarthy cameout and I love big John
McCarthy, right, I was excitedfor him to be there.
(07:38):
He did nothing.
He did nothing for penaltiesand then he did nothing for
penalties and then just revertedyeah, went back to stall
tactics.
It was so tough to accept thatyou had the potential of all
these great matchups and some ofthe best athletic talent ever
brought together in one stadiumto take Nogi and turn it back
(08:00):
into IBJJF Worlds Stall city.
That's not what we're there for.
People weren't really using thewall.
Actually, stand out.
Damien Olivares, dorian DorianOlivares Just bulldogging
everyone.
So good, what a savage bro.
The roughest unit, yeah, thesmother.
(08:21):
Oh, yeah, on Penner.
He also did the.
Ethanhan krelenstein beat the.
Oh, dude krelenstein, hedestroyed krelenstein.
It was rough town.
Yeah, yeah, he was fuckinggreat to watch.
So that was that.
I mean you, arguably it was.
It was his matches, stuff, thatkind of that saved it, because
you're like, fuck, yeah, I canget excited about this, yeah,
and there was some great momentslike, of course, yeah, but I
(08:44):
think the difficulty was a teamcould win without submissions,
yeah, I think even the fact thatboth players get kind of
knocked down, even if it were tohave a golden point or some
kind of outcome See, what youguys may not know, you're
watching at home People told meand I think you might have
(09:05):
mentioned it, joe that you gotto see the score at the end of
the match.
Is that right?
Oh, you know, actually, onreflection, I I can't remember
someone told me that, right, wedidn't see the score, right like
we, we watched the match and itwas kind of okay, both players
knocked out, there's nosubmission.
We actually didn't know whichway the judges went on it, right
, so we kind of left to guess,yeah, and I think that was a
(09:27):
huge failing because at least we, you know, if we saw, if we
knew what the judges werethinking, we could have formed
an opinion and we couldn't.
And you know I was sittingaround a variety of people, you
know I didn't have Pissing offyour neighbors, no, I think
people think people found itfunny.
You know me just fucking justroasting everyone I was.
(09:49):
I was genuinely disappointedwith everyone, australians
included, like I was so Ibelieve my expectation was too
high but the potential was bigand, as a result, I was very you
(10:09):
know, I was just scathing ofthe whole thing, you know, I,
yeah.
So and I don't want to, I don'twant to have, I don't want to
be a whinger about this, becauseI obviously loved the event.
It like overall and it'sfucking amazing, right, like the
money and the talent they getand all that.
But I noticed, like and I thinkI saw this a lot from the
Australian grapplers was likethey stuck to their game only
(10:35):
and refused to adapt.
Yeah, refused.
Like a lot of the ones thatwanted to play guard Canard,
canard.
Yeah, canard versus WojiRefused to come on top.
Like, just did not come.
Andard.
Yeah, canard versus WojcikRefused to come on top.
Like, just did not come.
And you're like, and you're notgoing to Even Adele, right,
actually, that was the biggest,that was the biggest thing.
Fuck, come on top.
Like, come on top, do some shit.
You know, because obviously,like you could see Cravar's
(10:57):
strategy of I'll sit back onthis bogus.
But you're like she's, she'stalking to the judges here and
she's doing a good job of it.
She gamed it, yeah, yeah.
And so, coming in and and just,and it was similar to the Fionn
match, right, yeah, um of like,where Adele's like no, I'm
sticking to my guard game here.
But yeah, if we compare Fionnand then faux attack yeah, same
(11:22):
kind of same playbook and alsojust dangle her hair in her face
, that was fucked.
Yeah, that was so ridiculous.
Yeah, but yeah, I felt likethis, like and I look, if you
looked at the attacks that Adelehad and I say this with no bias
, like I'm I mean I'm going togive like a point of like credit
(11:46):
and a point of criticism, right, because I love Adele.
Adele, you're my girl, I loveyou to death.
Adele's attacks were legitimate.
You know, when she went to thearm, she went to like they were
legitimate and you're likethat's a threat and Craver had
to fucking defend.
So I think a lot of people weremessaging me, being like, how
rigged was that?
Like Craver was attackingnothing, how could you award
them?
But I think it's like similarto MMA, that like, oh, she was
(12:06):
jabbing even if she wasn't doingdamage, right.
So even though if you thoughtthat Adele had the major attacks
, she wasn't as attacking asCraver.
Here's the point of criticismwhen you saw Adele escaping, she
was just bailing, like she wasliterally just disconnecting and
lying on the ground, like whatyou'll see a lot of the times
(12:29):
with leg lockers is they'lldefend and repummel and
re-attack yeah, you know, likeit's it's dude goes for this.
You know, girl goes for that.
Like back and forth.
Adele was just like no, I'm nottapping to this, and just no
counter, right.
And I spoke with Jakeafterwards, jake O'Driscoll, I
bumped into him at the end of itand he's like yeah, we've got a
(12:52):
couple of things to work on.
There was a very clear footageof where Adele was trying to get
out of a footlock and she wastotally disengaged, no points of
contact, just bailing.
This happened multiple timeswith no direct counter, no
counter, and didn't threaten tocome up or sweep or yeah, yeah.
And that was, as a huge Adelefan, fucking frustrating.
(13:12):
So I just knew.
But here's the thing I wantedto see more of the game right,
more of her game.
Let's speak about the women'ssetup.
It was better than the men'sbecause they had the rounds,
they had the scoring.
Sarah Galvano was fuckingawesome, oh bro, so good.
She was on fire.
She's looking great, yeah, andthat was the format that made
CJI great is the rounds, thescoring.
(13:35):
One person can win a chunk ofmoney, yeah, so good.
Come out like a rabid dog, yeah, and the tournament missed that
dog.
Yeah, and I the the tournamentmissed that.
So, man, I I feel like thewomen's matches were more
exciting than most of the men'smatches.
Yeah, I mean, we saw a bit ofthe rabid dog vibe, say day two,
like badoni, oh yeah, becausehe obviously had the tapping
(13:56):
incident on day one.
He was so he's like I'm comingout to prove something and
you're like, yeah, this is theenergy we needed.
And that was kind of thepervasive energy of CJ1.
Cjr1, right, yes, whereeveryone's like out to prove and
like I want to fucking win thismoney.
Yeah, tell me, what was thevibe?
On the day one?
We had two mystery tap moments,I think, because from the crowd,
(14:19):
like I was actually sittingrelatively close, like our
seating wasn't, you know, wasn'tcourtside, but it was like we
were only I don't know 10 rowsback, uh, 15 rows back, so we
had awesome view.
The feeling, uh, was that, butonly tapped.
But that was, but uponreflection maybe not.
You know, like very hard to say, you know, because it was, it
(14:41):
wasn't like it was.
It wasn't like the Martinez tap.
No, no, the Martinez was a tapand whether you love him or you
don't love him I can neverfucking remember which one.
No, no, no, is he Gio or Richie?
So Richie Martinez is theboogeyman, he's the older
brother, right, and Gio's theyounger.
Yeah, and look, you know, fullcredit to that guy.
(15:01):
He's a very experiencedgrappler and a legend of
grappling.
So I'm not saying this to saybad on him, but dude's on the
leg, kind of belly down twisting, and he's like straining and he
puts his hand to the thigh orsomething and it's more than
once it looks like a tap.
So when he's like I didn't,you're like dude, like you're
(15:23):
all professionals, like let himbreak your shit, then Don't make
it look like a tap, like it wasso, and then it's we all saw
the video.
Yeah, dude, you can see it justlooks.
You're not selling that, you'renot tapping.
It looked very much like a tap.
So I think the initial reactionwas like maybe with the Bodoni
(15:45):
case, maybe if Pierman, if hejust kept going and then we saw
if it was actually more of athreat, then maybe there'd be
more of a case for it.
Might have jumped the gun alittle bit on that one On
letting go of it, yeah, but hewas like, oh, he tapped, but
like if he just kept kind ofcranking and then actually got a
(16:07):
tap, you know what I mean?
Yeah, but I think that peoplewere happy because people wanted
to see a result.
People fucking wanted to see it.
He needed to take a little bitof that energy of.
Was it when Luke Griffith gotthe choke on?
Who Was it when Luke Griffithgot the choke on?
Who was the little guy hefought?
Was it Pato?
No, he fought some.
You know one of the lightweightguys and he just, and he just
(16:30):
Crushed, crushed and then theguy attacked and he just, and
you saw him, he actually fuckinggot evil face until the ref was
like, hey, man, let go, let go,yeah.
And you're like, oh, what afucking dog Luke Griffiths was
bringing.
That mean mean energy man.
Yeah, like, yeah, fun to watch,yeah.
And I mean, look, to be honest,like his fight, his match, I
should say, with Nicky Rod.
(16:51):
Nicky Rod didn't look like hewas all there man.
No, you don't think so.
He looked injured, yeah right,like I mean maybe it was just on
that day, but he didn't lookgreat.
But yeah, he won, he was ableto get the win.
So I think it's tough to saybecause there's so many factors
(17:12):
going in.
I think overall I don't knowwhat the experience was like
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(18:14):
There is a couple of confusingelements.
So, obviously, gable stevesonhe pulls out.
Yeah, two weeks later has hissuccessful mma match.
What I love is how hard peopleare trolling him in the comments
, are they?
Oh, yeah, you know, champion ofturf toe, like he overcame turf
toe to be, you know?
Oh, because that's why hepulled out.
Yeah, because I think the UFC,the context, the alleged context
(18:38):
, is that he might have coppedsome pressure from the UFC to
fuck Craig up.
Yeah, right, because he's kindof enemy number one to the UFC,
cause he's speaking so bad aboutthe UFC, bjj and all of that.
So, and his debut he debuted inthe UFC, did he?
Well, no, it's like a Zufaowned organization, it's not the
UFC.
But you know, if he does wellthere, then you can see where
(19:00):
that might go.
But Chael Sonnen came in and gotbuggy choked just so fast, man,
I mean dude it was I couldn'tget excited about that.
Well, no, no, no, why did Craighave to choke him straight away
?
Well, that's the thing.
I think Chael came in likequite serious, like he's like
I'm going to give this guy asmuch as I've got, and I think
(19:22):
Craig was coming in probably toorelaxed and then he was like,
oh well, I'll just catch thisguy.
Allegedly I don't know if thisis true, this is just what Chael
had said is that it was best ofthree, or something like that.
So then they were like, okay,let's run it back.
That was done too quickly.
And Chael was kind of throwingCraig around a bit and I think
Craig was like, fuck, gettingthrown around, whatever, I'll do
(19:45):
it again, you know, becauselike I don't know what it was,
it wasn't like a lap drop, buthe, he turned under and he
actually threw Craig pretty hard, yeah.
And I think Craig was like, ohman, fuck this.
And.
And just went again and peoplewere saying it looked like a
setup.
But Chael was out.
Oh, I had direct vision on it.
(20:06):
He was like, yeah, and he was I.
I be honest, full respect tochow, I think he was quite
embarrassed.
Chow was that he got done thesame way twice.
Yeah, but that's such a craigmove.
And then he just bailed, hejust he didn't even stick around
to say anything.
He was just like fuck him out.
Who chow?
Yeah, yeah.
And then gabby got down there.
It's a bit awkward, like here'sthing, as as engineered as
everything was because theydidn't have, say, hanata Laranja
(20:29):
in there keeping the.
You know, they went and didsome interviews.
I had him on the broadcasting,yeah, talking with Jocko and
stuff like.
But it needed an MC.
That wasn't, um, that wasn'tthe, the main woman.
I forget her name, I apologize.
It needed someone to kind ofkeep it going, keep the crowd
going, like something.
And Craig was not engaged inthat and I think that people
(20:53):
would have loved to have seenCraig in that way, but he just
didn't engage.
Funny, yeah, he's actually notreally into.
He's not a spotlight guy.
Well, no, he is a spotlight guy.
He can't freestyle.
He's not an spotlight guy, he.
Well, no, it's not, he's not,he is a spotlight guy.
He can't freestyle, right, he'snot off the cuff, he's a
written guy, he.
So you can't get him to sayanything really as good
impromptu and that's just.
(21:14):
We've just seen that like everytime.
It's like, all right, cut tosay something, say something off
the cuff.
Yeah, it was great, all right,but you just don't see it right.
He is very good at havingsomething which comes across as
very natural and unrehearsed,but it's, it's worked because at
the end and this is the thing,and you would all feel it.
(21:35):
Now let me just share this withyou because you know, everyone
feels differently about this andI've got a lot of love for
folks in the B team.
You know, and I don't I I'm notsomeone who's a big fan of new
wave the feeling from the crowdwho did not know the score was
that new wave was up threematches to two.
(21:56):
Right, that was the peoplewould like.
What do you think Like?
And people are like fuck.
I think new wave got it Likepeople like fuck, cause they
kind of had the bad guy energy.
Yeah, like you know, lukeRivers, bodoni, like it was not
a.
You know, yeah, dorian, oliver,bro, they were, they were there
to, they weren't there to fuck,you know.
(22:19):
And so I feel, because youcould hear it in the crowd I
don't know if you got thiswatching over the internet when
they announced that it was27-27-27, a tie score across the
three judges.
That felt amazing, extremelyunlikely, right.
But you know things happen andI don't know the exact rules.
(22:42):
But then you know we're notprivy to this that the last
match would be the decidingwinning match and that happened
to be Nicky Rod and LukeGriffiths, right?
So you're like man for them tothen go.
So B team wins.
There was no other explanationof the rules.
There was nothing else.
(23:02):
Craig pretty much bounced andit was like they win and New
Wave was like what.
And the sound from the audiencewas like what.
It wasn't woo, it was literallydisbelief.
Wow, the energy went out of thestadium and people just started
to fucking leave, like it was.
(23:24):
Wow, it was, it was.
It was overwhelming sense ofEveryone thought it was going to
be a new wave.
It was Seemed rigged.
Yeah, and even though when yougo back you look at the rules,
you do the scoring whatever youknow.
Yeah, I mean, you can't therules, you do the scoring
whatever you know.
Yeah, I mean, can you imaginethat they could have rigged that
scoring?
(23:45):
No, I don't know, Couldn't have, right, I couldn't say that.
But the fear, like this is thething, right, yeah, it doesn't
matter really.
What happened, the crowd'simpression.
The crowd's impression was like, oh, craig got his boys paid,
because I don't know if you sawthis at home they did this big
thing about Simple man MartialArts possibly the worst rebrand
of all time where they saidgoodbye to B-Team, it's the end
(24:14):
of an era.
And it was this whole.
It was like an ad for the gymin Austin, the rebrand of B-Team
, and maybe that's just Craig'sway of trying to help the gym
out because he's not associatedanymore.
But that whole feeling was like, well, there's, there's, you
know, a bias here.
And then I didn't pay attentionafter that Cause we went out on
the town.
I went out with Jack, we met upwith some of his mates.
We we caught up with uh, youknow, um, fucking shooting some
(24:36):
dice in some casino somewhere.
You know I didn't pay attentionto social media for 12 hours.
At least Get back online.
New Wave has been awarded amillion dollars.
I was like, oh my God, theymust have coughed some fucking
hectic backlash for that tohappen.
Right, yeah, you're like, wow,yeah, I mean Craig's was that.
(25:00):
The whoever's given the moneyfelt was like no, they deserve.
Yeah.
But then, upon review, it gotwithdrawn.
Oh my god, just controversy,the offer was rescinded.
Controversy after controversy,which you can't help but feel
like, because gordon was justtrolling so hard over that, yeah
, that that it like ignitedcraig to be like I'm to find a
(25:20):
way to get this money taken back.
I don't know and and look, Ilike I said, whatever you feel,
whether you feel B team one ornew, I'm just going off like the
, the 15 or 20 people weresitting around.
We were kind of shocked at theresult.
Yeah, wow.
So I don't know.
You know, like I.
This is, this is the difficulty,the high that was generated,
(25:44):
like Tackett Rotolo as one ofthe greatest matches of all time
in Nogi, and the excitement andeven just the closure.
You get where, okay, nikkiRod's the million dollar man,
yeah, and um, cade is themillion dollar man, you know
regardless.
Um, cade is the million dollarman.
You know, regardless of whatyou thought of each individual
match.
Hulk submitting fucking JosephChan.
There was amazing moments.
There was so many highlights.
(26:04):
I mean, for me, I was obviouslyon the Levi train Levi breaking
Ty's leg, you know, seeing Levigo for leg locks.
Lucas Canard on Victor Hugo,him taking Hulk's back, yeah,
there was amazing moments.
There's huge moments in there,right, there was amazing moments
, there's huge moments in there,right, and there was
submissions in CJI 2, but therewasn't the same feeling Like I
(26:26):
think everyone came out of CJI 1being like this is the next
step in grappling, this is theevolution, this is what
entertainment grappling can be,and the format of CJI 2gi2,
unfortunately, was not that andthe result even took more shine
off that.
So, which is tough?
(26:47):
Yeah, I mean yeah, and you know, I think we're very, we're very
spoiled by the first one.
I think there was a curse.
I think it was a curse havingsuch a good first event, because
it's like a sequel, right, it'svery difficult.
It's just never going to be asgood as the original, maybe.
And I'm not saying this to hateon, I'm not hating on Craig in
saying this, no, no, no, I'mliterally just giving you the,
having been there andexperienced it.
(27:09):
Yeah, what Craig has done tomake this thing and get people
paid and have it all happen isremarkable.
It has changed the landscape ofgrappling.
So I'm not saying this to speakbad about Craig, which I think
you know.
It makes no sense to do that.
It's just like you say, it's sotough to follow up, tough, and
they and they had a crack atdoing something new again,
(27:31):
different, right, and and.
And it could have just aseasily been come off and be like
, oh, my God, that was even evenbetter, yeah, even better,
right, or totally different, youknow, like, so you gotta, you
gotta respect.
Like, how, we're gonna do afucking different format this
time.
Um, do you think there will bea cji3?
Um, nothing like this.
(27:51):
I don't, I don't think so.
Um, I?
When, when I saw the messagethat new wave would get a
million bucks, I was like, oh,they're going to go for a third,
cause you've got to keep Johngood, you've got to keep all
those competitors on board forthis.
And then when they said no, Iwas like, no, I don't think so.
(28:11):
I killed the way ofparticipation, which is a big
piece of the puzzle.
So, yeah, I don't I.
So yeah, I don't I.
I couldn't say for sure, but Ithink what we're going to see
now is there will be otheremulations of this style of
event and you know, you neverknow you might see craig be
involved with other events.
(28:32):
You know, I think he mightbecome the uh promoter
extraordinaire for for otherevents, because maybe he just
doesn't want all the drama thatcomes with having to organize
your own event, you know.
So I think you might see himinvolved with ADCC again, but
helping make it better, you knowlike, or whatever it might be
Like.
I think it's just such a toughthing to put on one person and
(28:56):
there were many aspects thatwere successful, but it's it's
hard to think, with all theoutcomes that occurred, that the
money at the time and theeffort would be replicated.
I don't think so.
Yeah, right, well, we'llfucking spoil to see that many
epic grapplers.
Yeah for sure, and I was very,very grateful to be there.
(29:16):
Obviously sad to not have youthere, joe, to have your own
conclusions, but, um, but no man, I, I think it was.
I I felt like I had to be therebecause there wasn't going to
be another one, and, and I and II felt like I made the right
decision to be there because itwas, it was a great experience,
regardless of outcome.
Yeah, I definitely got a bit ofFOMO seeing you guys there that
(29:37):
day and the videos that ensuedand later that, and I was like,
fuck, yeah, it would have beenfun to be in Vegas for that day.
Yeah, but, uh, but it's allright.
There will be more events.
I think like many greatinventions, they spawn other
great inventions and this is thebest step that's ever happened
in grappling in the last 10, 15years and this has enabled more
(29:59):
athletes to get more pay.
The standard has been lifted.
So if this means that otherbetter things happen, then you
cannot take away the importanceof this event and what it's done
for jujitsu.
There it is.
Folks Love it or hate it.
Cji legendary Bye, legendary.
A good martial artist does not become tense, but
ready.
Essentially, at this point, thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
I'm ready.
Cji 2, the recap.
(00:35):
The truth boots on the ground.
I've got the insight.
I was there, the story's behindthe stories.
You just got back a couple ofdays ago.
I literally got back yesterday,bam, and so I was in San
Francisco for a couple of daysbefore CJI2, went down to Vegas,
connected with Jack, shut outyoung blood, and then we, yeah,
(00:56):
we're at the event andconnecting with folks in Las
Vegas, caught up with Benny fromPartisan, his partner, and,
yeah, just seeing people allaround the town, which is always
cool.
I think that's the great vibewith an event like this, because
also, world Masters is onJiu-Jitsu Con, so you've got
like 13,000 people plus allcoming for that.
(01:18):
Cji planned it around that samekind of deal, piggyback like
they did last time ADCC and shit.
Yeah, it was strategic in thatway, but it was also a long
weekend.
It was like a bank holiday onMonday, so it was so like it was
very busy.
Yeah, right on.
Yeah, what was the vibe cominginto it like the expectations
(01:39):
were very high.
I think the expectations weresuper high.
The hype was legitimate becausehaving a team's event, you're
like this could be the bestthing.
This could be the best thingever.
This could be even better thanthe first cji.
Imagine that.
Yeah, pardon me, but whichwould prove to be a curse.
Yeah, how fucking good thefirst.
(02:01):
I think it is so difficult todo the follow-up so you could
just say that.
But there were certain thingsabout the first cji which made
it great and those things werenot present.
Well, so well, let's talk aboutthat.
What made cji number one sogood?
You were there, we're boththere.
It was fucking great.
The, the five rounds, uh, orfour, like three rounds or five
(02:24):
rounds for the final, yep.
And the scoring Having thescoring, undoing, scoring right,
yeah.
Letting us know at the end ofthe round the judges think
so-and-so's ahead, yeah, whetheryou agree with that or not, you
know where the match is at,yeah.
So if you know that oneperson's up two rounds and
there's only one round to go, orthree to, you're like, well,
fuck, they need to put out thesubmission, send it.
Yeah.
And that emphasis on actionmeant the matches were action,
(02:47):
yeah, and there was a lot of useof the alleyway, the wall, yeah
, and that was fucking exciting.
Yeah, it was cool, you know.
And also the fact that therewas one match on and everyone
was focused on that, yeah, so,coming into CJI 2.
, it was also like.
One of the other things thatplayed strongly is that it was
like a.
It was a revolutionary event.
(03:10):
Yes, it was.
You know what I mean it waslike, but it was the way, the
way the event was framed.
It was a whole rebellious thingagainst, and everyone's like,
fuck you, this is sick, this issome underground shit Changing
the game.
Yeah, and everyone's like, fuckyeah, this is sick, this is
some underground shit Changingthe game.
Yeah, you know which, you wouldhave to say.
(03:30):
A little bit of that sort ofsheen had worn off by the time
the second event came around.
I don't think so.
No, I understand thatperspective, but I think what
people were excited about wasthe potential matchups, because
you didn't know who would getmatched with who, and so that
means you could get some reallike, like the absolute.
Maybe Fabrizio Andre fucking,fucking launches somebody way
(03:54):
bigger than him, and that'sfucking exciting.
But unfortunately, the rule setrewarded stalling.
The rule set rewarded stalling.
And this is the biggest letdownof the whole tournament was
really, if you looked at how togame it, all it took was for one
member of a team to get asubmission and then the rest of
(04:15):
the matches could be stallinglike stall outs, and then that
team would win and you're like,surely they're not going to do
that?
But that, ladies and gentlemen,is what they did, and you know
if you, if you're like surelythey're not going to do that,
but that, ladies and gentlemen,is what they did.
And you know if you, if youwatched it, I tell you what
being there, it was a five timesmore frustrating than watching
it on YouTube.
Yeah, like I, you know, likethe vlog where Jack was there
(04:40):
filming the vlog and there wereso many times he'd like cut to
my reaction and I'm just like,like, like it wasn't me being
like woo.
Yeah, like I was just like man,fuck this.
It was so disappointing becausethe bigger guys there was some
really good kind of sizematchups and you've got to give
credit to like a guy like OwenJones or like any of the smaller
(05:03):
guys who did really wellagainst bigger guys, but the
bigger guys knew all they had todo was just control, just make
it to the end.
Yeah, I'll get subbed, yeah,and if they'd already got a sub,
then that was it.
And so, yeah, it's aninteresting point, the vibe from
day one was pretty average Dude.
I was like so I'm a big fan ofquintet, as you know, and one of
(05:26):
the things that quintet doesthey penalize.
They fucking.
They're so hardcore with thepenalties, like that, like they,
they slap hands, go, and iffive seconds later no one's done
anything, referees like penalty, penalty, if you get three
penalties it's disqualification.
And then they just drive asathletes like fuck, I gotta do
something, and they just makeshit happen, right, and day one
(05:48):
we saw no penalties.
Like the referee did notintervene once, yeah, and look,
even you know, as we all know,like craig had to get online,
offer extra money, yeah, andthen also say, yes, we're
bringing in quintet-esque rulesto penalize well, it was already
there, it was already a quintetrule set I to penalize.
Well, it was already there, itwas already a quintet rule set.
I didn't know that that was itwas, and I didn't know either,
(06:10):
but it was actually a co-labbedquintet event, right, and and
they were like we're followingthe quintet rules here, and so
we were like fucking sick.
And then, when the day oneplayed out, we're like you
didn't enforce that key part ofthe rules.
So then I think there was a lotof backlash online and, as a
result, look more people, look,the stadium is probably only
(06:31):
half full.
Day one there was more people.
Day two, I think people wouldcome from Jiu Jitsu con and it
was like people would come forthe finals.
But, yes, day two started waybetter.
Yeah, so that ref, the baldheaded guy, yeah, the one that
the one that galvan had beefwith, yes, because he, fucking,
he switched it on, on, on.
Was it hulk, which, yeah, hulkversus, uh, not joseph chan?
(06:52):
Was it joseph chan?
Maybe it was last year, no, no,but I was thinking it was a
similar thing.
It was somebody with a profoundguard game.
Could have been, because it wasathos versus team williams.
Uh, in the the day two.
So, anyway, to the, to the site, yeah, so, yes, uh, team new
wave, I call them team williams,aega, forgive me.
So, so that that red hulk wasstalling and so to turn it over,
(07:16):
and that ref was like it couldhave been against mika.
Okay, yeah, right.
And that ref was like fuckingdishing out penalties and it was
like, fuck, yes, they've turnedit around.
And people got excited, yeah,okay.
And you could feel thatwatching it Like it brought the
energy up and you're like, oh,it's on now, this is what we
wanted to see.
But then big John McCarthy cameout and I love big John
McCarthy, right, I was excitedfor him to be there.
(07:38):
He did nothing.
He did nothing for penaltiesand then he did nothing for
penalties and then just revertedyeah, went back to stall
tactics.
It was so tough to accept thatyou had the potential of all
these great matchups and some ofthe best athletic talent ever
brought together in one stadiumto take Nogi and turn it back
(08:00):
into IBJJF Worlds Stall city.
That's not what we're there for.
People weren't really using thewall.
Actually, stand out.
Damien Olivares, dorian DorianOlivares Just bulldogging
everyone.
So good, what a savage bro.
The roughest unit, yeah, thesmother.
(08:21):
Oh, yeah, on Penner.
He also did the.
Ethanhan krelenstein beat the.
Oh, dude krelenstein, hedestroyed krelenstein.
It was rough town.
Yeah, yeah, he was fuckinggreat to watch.
So that was that.
I mean you, arguably it was.
It was his matches, stuff, thatkind of that saved it, because
you're like, fuck, yeah, I canget excited about this, yeah,
and there was some great momentslike, of course, yeah, but I
(08:44):
think the difficulty was a teamcould win without submissions,
yeah, I think even the fact thatboth players get kind of
knocked down, even if it were tohave a golden point or some
kind of outcome See, what youguys may not know, you're
watching at home People told meand I think you might have
(09:05):
mentioned it, joe that you gotto see the score at the end of
the match.
Is that right?
Oh, you know, actually, onreflection, I I can't remember
someone told me that, right, wedidn't see the score, right like
we, we watched the match and itwas kind of okay, both players
knocked out, there's nosubmission.
We actually didn't know whichway the judges went on it, right
, so we kind of left to guess,yeah, and I think that was a
(09:27):
huge failing because at least we, you know, if we saw, if we
knew what the judges werethinking, we could have formed
an opinion and we couldn't.
And you know I was sittingaround a variety of people, you
know I didn't have Pissing offyour neighbors, no, I think
people think people found itfunny.
You know me just fucking justroasting everyone I was.
(09:49):
I was genuinely disappointedwith everyone, australians
included, like I was so Ibelieve my expectation was too
high but the potential was bigand, as a result, I was very you
(10:09):
know, I was just scathing ofthe whole thing, you know, I,
yeah.
So and I don't want to, I don'twant to have, I don't want to
be a whinger about this, becauseI obviously loved the event.
It like overall and it'sfucking amazing, right, like the
money and the talent they getand all that.
But I noticed, like and I thinkI saw this a lot from the
Australian grapplers was likethey stuck to their game only
(10:35):
and refused to adapt.
Yeah, refused.
Like a lot of the ones thatwanted to play guard Canard,
canard.
Yeah, canard versus WojiRefused to come on top.
Like, just did not come.
Andard.
Yeah, canard versus WojcikRefused to come on top.
Like, just did not come.
And you're like, and you're notgoing to Even Adele, right,
actually, that was the biggest,that was the biggest thing.
Fuck, come on top.
Like, come on top, do some shit.
You know, because obviously,like you could see Cravar's
(10:57):
strategy of I'll sit back onthis bogus.
But you're like she's, she'stalking to the judges here and
she's doing a good job of it.
She gamed it, yeah, yeah.
And so, coming in and and just,and it was similar to the Fionn
match, right, yeah, um of like,where Adele's like no, I'm
sticking to my guard game here.
But yeah, if we compare Fionnand then faux attack yeah, same
(11:22):
kind of same playbook and alsojust dangle her hair in her face
, that was fucked.
Yeah, that was so ridiculous.
Yeah, but yeah, I felt likethis, like and I look, if you
looked at the attacks that Adelehad and I say this with no bias
, like I'm I mean I'm going togive like a point of like credit
(11:46):
and a point of criticism, right, because I love Adele.
Adele, you're my girl, I loveyou to death.
Adele's attacks were legitimate.
You know, when she went to thearm, she went to like they were
legitimate and you're likethat's a threat and Craver had
to fucking defend.
So I think a lot of people weremessaging me, being like, how
rigged was that?
Like Craver was attackingnothing, how could you award
them?
But I think it's like similarto MMA, that like, oh, she was
(12:06):
jabbing even if she wasn't doingdamage, right.
So even though if you thoughtthat Adele had the major attacks
, she wasn't as attacking asCraver.
Here's the point of criticismwhen you saw Adele escaping, she
was just bailing, like she wasliterally just disconnecting and
lying on the ground, like whatyou'll see a lot of the times
(12:29):
with leg lockers is they'lldefend and repummel and
re-attack yeah, you know, likeit's it's dude goes for this.
You know, girl goes for that.
Like back and forth.
Adele was just like no, I'm nottapping to this, and just no
counter, right.
And I spoke with Jakeafterwards, jake O'Driscoll, I
bumped into him at the end of itand he's like yeah, we've got a
(12:52):
couple of things to work on.
There was a very clear footageof where Adele was trying to get
out of a footlock and she wastotally disengaged, no points of
contact, just bailing.
This happened multiple timeswith no direct counter, no
counter, and didn't threaten tocome up or sweep or yeah, yeah.
And that was, as a huge Adelefan, fucking frustrating.
(13:12):
So I just knew.
But here's the thing I wantedto see more of the game right,
more of her game.
Let's speak about the women'ssetup.
It was better than the men'sbecause they had the rounds,
they had the scoring.
Sarah Galvano was fuckingawesome, oh bro, so good.
She was on fire.
She's looking great, yeah, andthat was the format that made
CJI great is the rounds, thescoring.
(13:35):
One person can win a chunk ofmoney, yeah, so good.
Come out like a rabid dog, yeah, and the tournament missed that
dog.
Yeah, and I the the tournamentmissed that.
So, man, I I feel like thewomen's matches were more
exciting than most of the men'smatches.
Yeah, I mean, we saw a bit ofthe rabid dog vibe, say day two,
like badoni, oh yeah, becausehe obviously had the tapping
(13:56):
incident on day one.
He was so he's like I'm comingout to prove something and
you're like, yeah, this is theenergy we needed.
And that was kind of thepervasive energy of CJ1.
Cjr1, right, yes, whereeveryone's like out to prove and
like I want to fucking win thismoney.
Yeah, tell me, what was thevibe?
On the day one?
We had two mystery tap moments,I think, because from the crowd,
(14:19):
like I was actually sittingrelatively close, like our
seating wasn't, you know, wasn'tcourtside, but it was like we
were only I don't know 10 rowsback, uh, 15 rows back, so we
had awesome view.
The feeling, uh, was that, butonly tapped.
But that was, but uponreflection maybe not.
You know, like very hard to say, you know, because it was, it
(14:41):
wasn't like it was.
It wasn't like the Martinez tap.
No, no, the Martinez was a tapand whether you love him or you
don't love him I can neverfucking remember which one.
No, no, no, is he Gio or Richie?
So Richie Martinez is theboogeyman, he's the older
brother, right, and Gio's theyounger.
Yeah, and look, you know, fullcredit to that guy.
(15:01):
He's a very experiencedgrappler and a legend of
grappling.
So I'm not saying this to saybad on him, but dude's on the
leg, kind of belly down twisting, and he's like straining and he
puts his hand to the thigh orsomething and it's more than
once it looks like a tap.
So when he's like I didn't,you're like dude, like you're
(15:23):
all professionals, like let himbreak your shit, then Don't make
it look like a tap, like it wasso, and then it's we all saw
the video.
Yeah, dude, you can see it justlooks.
You're not selling that, you'renot tapping.
It looked very much like a tap.
So I think the initial reactionwas like maybe with the Bodoni
(15:45):
case, maybe if Pierman, if hejust kept going and then we saw
if it was actually more of athreat, then maybe there'd be
more of a case for it.
Might have jumped the gun alittle bit on that one On
letting go of it, yeah, but hewas like, oh, he tapped, but
like if he just kept kind ofcranking and then actually got a
(16:07):
tap, you know what I mean?
Yeah, but I think that peoplewere happy because people wanted
to see a result.
People fucking wanted to see it.
He needed to take a little bitof that energy of.
Was it when Luke Griffith gotthe choke on?
Who Was it when Luke Griffithgot the choke on?
Who was the little guy hefought?
Was it Pato?
No, he fought some.
You know one of the lightweightguys and he just, and he just
(16:30):
Crushed, crushed and then theguy attacked and he just, and
you saw him, he actually fuckinggot evil face until the ref was
like, hey, man, let go, let go,yeah.
And you're like, oh, what afucking dog Luke Griffiths was
bringing.
That mean mean energy man.
Yeah, like, yeah, fun to watch,yeah.
And I mean, look, to be honest,like his fight, his match, I
should say, with Nicky Rod.
(16:51):
Nicky Rod didn't look like hewas all there man.
No, you don't think so.
He looked injured, yeah right,like I mean maybe it was just on
that day, but he didn't lookgreat.
But yeah, he won, he was ableto get the win.
So I think it's tough to saybecause there's so many factors
(17:12):
going in.
I think overall I don't knowwhat the experience was like
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(18:14):
There is a couple of confusingelements.
So, obviously, gable stevesonhe pulls out.
Yeah, two weeks later has hissuccessful mma match.
What I love is how hard peopleare trolling him in the comments
, are they?
Oh, yeah, you know, champion ofturf toe, like he overcame turf
toe to be, you know?
Oh, because that's why hepulled out.
Yeah, because I think the UFC,the context, the alleged context
(18:38):
, is that he might have coppedsome pressure from the UFC to
fuck Craig up.
Yeah, right, because he's kindof enemy number one to the UFC,
cause he's speaking so bad aboutthe UFC, bjj and all of that.
So, and his debut he debuted inthe UFC, did he?
Well, no, it's like a Zufaowned organization, it's not the
UFC.
But you know, if he does wellthere, then you can see where
(19:00):
that might go.
But Chael Sonnen came in and gotbuggy choked just so fast, man,
I mean dude it was I couldn'tget excited about that.
Well, no, no, no, why did Craighave to choke him straight away
?
Well, that's the thing.
I think Chael came in likequite serious, like he's like
I'm going to give this guy asmuch as I've got, and I think
(19:22):
Craig was coming in probably toorelaxed and then he was like,
oh well, I'll just catch thisguy.
Allegedly I don't know if thisis true, this is just what Chael
had said is that it was best ofthree, or something like that.
So then they were like, okay,let's run it back.
That was done too quickly.
And Chael was kind of throwingCraig around a bit and I think
Craig was like, fuck, gettingthrown around, whatever, I'll do
(19:45):
it again, you know, becauselike I don't know what it was,
it wasn't like a lap drop, buthe, he turned under and he
actually threw Craig pretty hard, yeah.
And I think Craig was like, ohman, fuck this.
And.
And just went again and peoplewere saying it looked like a
setup.
But Chael was out.
Oh, I had direct vision on it.
(20:06):
He was like, yeah, and he was I.
I be honest, full respect tochow, I think he was quite
embarrassed.
Chow was that he got done thesame way twice.
Yeah, but that's such a craigmove.
And then he just bailed, hejust he didn't even stick around
to say anything.
He was just like fuck him out.
Who chow?
Yeah, yeah.
And then gabby got down there.
It's a bit awkward, like here'sthing, as as engineered as
everything was because theydidn't have, say, hanata Laranja
(20:29):
in there keeping the.
You know, they went and didsome interviews.
I had him on the broadcasting,yeah, talking with Jocko and
stuff like.
But it needed an MC.
That wasn't, um, that wasn'tthe, the main woman.
I forget her name, I apologize.
It needed someone to kind ofkeep it going, keep the crowd
going, like something.
And Craig was not engaged inthat and I think that people
(20:53):
would have loved to have seenCraig in that way, but he just
didn't engage.
Funny, yeah, he's actually notreally into.
He's not a spotlight guy.
Well, no, he is a spotlight guy.
He can't freestyle.
He's not an spotlight guy, he.
Well, no, it's not, he's not,he is a spotlight guy.
He can't freestyle, right, he'snot off the cuff, he's a
written guy, he.
So you can't get him to sayanything really as good
impromptu and that's just.
(21:14):
We've just seen that like everytime.
It's like, all right, cut tosay something, say something off
the cuff.
Yeah, it was great, all right,but you just don't see it right.
He is very good at havingsomething which comes across as
very natural and unrehearsed,but it's, it's worked because at
the end and this is the thing,and you would all feel it.
(21:35):
Now let me just share this withyou because you know, everyone
feels differently about this andI've got a lot of love for
folks in the B team.
You know, and I don't I I'm notsomeone who's a big fan of new
wave the feeling from the crowdwho did not know the score was
that new wave was up threematches to two.
(21:56):
Right, that was the peoplewould like.
What do you think Like?
And people are like fuck.
I think new wave got it Likepeople like fuck, cause they
kind of had the bad guy energy.
Yeah, like you know, lukeRivers, bodoni, like it was not
a.
You know, yeah, dorian, oliver,bro, they were, they were there
to, they weren't there to fuck,you know.
(22:19):
And so I feel, because youcould hear it in the crowd I
don't know if you got thiswatching over the internet when
they announced that it was27-27-27, a tie score across the
three judges.
That felt amazing, extremelyunlikely, right.
But you know things happen andI don't know the exact rules.
(22:42):
But then you know we're notprivy to this that the last
match would be the decidingwinning match and that happened
to be Nicky Rod and LukeGriffiths, right?
So you're like man for them tothen go.
So B team wins.
There was no other explanationof the rules.
There was nothing else.
(23:02):
Craig pretty much bounced andit was like they win and New
Wave was like what.
And the sound from the audiencewas like what.
It wasn't woo, it was literallydisbelief.
Wow, the energy went out of thestadium and people just started
to fucking leave, like it was.
(23:24):
Wow, it was, it was.
It was overwhelming sense ofEveryone thought it was going to
be a new wave.
It was Seemed rigged.
Yeah, and even though when yougo back you look at the rules,
you do the scoring whatever youknow.
Yeah, I mean, you can't therules, you do the scoring
whatever you know.
Yeah, I mean, can you imaginethat they could have rigged that
scoring?
(23:45):
No, I don't know, Couldn't have, right, I couldn't say that.
But the fear, like this is thething, right, yeah, it doesn't
matter really.
What happened, the crowd'simpression.
The crowd's impression was like, oh, craig got his boys paid,
because I don't know if you sawthis at home they did this big
thing about Simple man MartialArts possibly the worst rebrand
of all time where they saidgoodbye to B-Team, it's the end
(24:14):
of an era.
And it was this whole.
It was like an ad for the gymin Austin, the rebrand of B-Team
, and maybe that's just Craig'sway of trying to help the gym
out because he's not associatedanymore.
But that whole feeling was like, well, there's, there's, you
know, a bias here.
And then I didn't pay attentionafter that Cause we went out on
the town.
I went out with Jack, we met upwith some of his mates.
We we caught up with uh, youknow, um, fucking shooting some
(24:36):
dice in some casino somewhere.
You know I didn't pay attentionto social media for 12 hours.
At least Get back online.
New Wave has been awarded amillion dollars.
I was like, oh my God, theymust have coughed some fucking
hectic backlash for that tohappen.
Right, yeah, you're like, wow,yeah, I mean Craig's was that.
(25:00):
The whoever's given the moneyfelt was like no, they deserve.
Yeah.
But then, upon review, it gotwithdrawn.
Oh my god, just controversy,the offer was rescinded.
Controversy after controversy,which you can't help but feel
like, because gordon was justtrolling so hard over that, yeah
, that that it like ignitedcraig to be like I'm to find a
(25:20):
way to get this money taken back.
I don't know and and look, Ilike I said, whatever you feel,
whether you feel B team one ornew, I'm just going off like the
, the 15 or 20 people weresitting around.
We were kind of shocked at theresult.
Yeah, wow.
So I don't know.
You know, like I.
This is, this is the difficulty,the high that was generated,
(25:44):
like Tackett Rotolo as one ofthe greatest matches of all time
in Nogi, and the excitement andeven just the closure.
You get where, okay, nikkiRod's the million dollar man,
yeah, and um, cade is themillion dollar man, you know
regardless.
Um, cade is the million dollarman.
You know, regardless of whatyou thought of each individual
match.
Hulk submitting fucking JosephChan.
There was amazing moments.
There was so many highlights.
(26:04):
I mean, for me, I was obviouslyon the Levi train Levi breaking
Ty's leg, you know, seeing Levigo for leg locks.
Lucas Canard on Victor Hugo,him taking Hulk's back, yeah,
there was amazing moments.
There's huge moments in there,right, there was amazing moments
, there's huge moments in there,right, and there was
submissions in CJI 2, but therewasn't the same feeling Like I
(26:26):
think everyone came out of CJI 1being like this is the next
step in grappling, this is theevolution, this is what
entertainment grappling can be,and the format of CJI 2gi2,
unfortunately, was not that andthe result even took more shine
off that.
So, which is tough?
(26:47):
Yeah, I mean yeah, and you know, I think we're very, we're very
spoiled by the first one.
I think there was a curse.
I think it was a curse havingsuch a good first event, because
it's like a sequel, right, it'svery difficult.
It's just never going to be asgood as the original, maybe.
And I'm not saying this to hateon, I'm not hating on Craig in
saying this, no, no, no, I'mliterally just giving you the,
having been there andexperienced it.
(27:09):
Yeah, what Craig has done tomake this thing and get people
paid and have it all happen isremarkable.
It has changed the landscape ofgrappling.
So I'm not saying this to speakbad about Craig, which I think
you know.
It makes no sense to do that.
It's just like you say, it's sotough to follow up, tough, and
they and they had a crack atdoing something new again,
(27:31):
different, right, and and.
And it could have just aseasily been come off and be like
, oh, my God, that was even evenbetter, yeah, even better,
right, or totally different, youknow, like, so you gotta, you
gotta respect.
Like, how, we're gonna do afucking different format this
time.
Um, do you think there will bea cji3?
Um, nothing like this.
(27:51):
I don't, I don't think so.
Um, I?
When, when I saw the messagethat new wave would get a
million bucks, I was like, oh,they're going to go for a third,
cause you've got to keep Johngood, you've got to keep all
those competitors on board forthis.
And then when they said no, Iwas like, no, I don't think so.
(28:11):
I killed the way ofparticipation, which is a big
piece of the puzzle.
So, yeah, I don't I.
So yeah, I don't I.
I couldn't say for sure, but Ithink what we're going to see
now is there will be otheremulations of this style of
event and you know, you neverknow you might see craig be
involved with other events.
(28:32):
You know, I think he mightbecome the uh promoter
extraordinaire for for otherevents, because maybe he just
doesn't want all the drama thatcomes with having to organize
your own event, you know.
So I think you might see himinvolved with ADCC again, but
helping make it better, you knowlike, or whatever it might be
Like.
I think it's just such a toughthing to put on one person and
(28:56):
there were many aspects thatwere successful, but it's it's
hard to think, with all theoutcomes that occurred, that the
money at the time and theeffort would be replicated.
I don't think so.
Yeah, right, well, we'llfucking spoil to see that many
epic grapplers.
Yeah for sure, and I was very,very grateful to be there.
(29:16):
Obviously sad to not have youthere, joe, to have your own
conclusions, but, um, but no man, I, I think it was.
I I felt like I had to be therebecause there wasn't going to
be another one, and, and I and II felt like I made the right
decision to be there because itwas, it was a great experience,
regardless of outcome.
Yeah, I definitely got a bit ofFOMO seeing you guys there that
(29:37):
day and the videos that ensuedand later that, and I was like,
fuck, yeah, it would have beenfun to be in Vegas for that day.
Yeah, but, uh, but it's allright.
There will be more events.
I think like many greatinventions, they spawn other
great inventions and this is thebest step that's ever happened
in grappling in the last 10, 15years and this has enabled more
(29:59):
athletes to get more pay.
The standard has been lifted.
So if this means that otherbetter things happen, then you
cannot take away the importanceof this event and what it's done
for jujitsu.
There it is.
Folks Love it or hate it.
Cji legendary Bye, legendary.
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