YouSaid · the spoken record

Craig Jones

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184
first
2024-08-14
most recent
2024-08-14
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1
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podcast

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  1. “Yeah, I mean, and it's an impossible thing to grasp. It's like some of the best performances I've had. I've been called up last minute or I've been sick or my camp's been horrible. And for me personally, I've gone in there and thought, relaxed, almost like, oh, well, you know, like you got cooled up a week ago. You were injured, you miss four weeks of your camp. And I went in there super relaxed and accepting of the result and performed much better. Sometimes when I know three months out, I've got an event coming up, and that event only happens every two years. It just the stress of that alone. Personally, on an individual level, more of a, I'd rather wing it. I'd rather be in the stands and just roll down like Gunnar Nelson. I remember he had a brilliant performance in an ADCC absolute. And he was out drinking the night before. He had no idea he was competing the next day. He was in the stands eating ice cream.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “He thinks to you is the right amount of work. And I think that's different for different people. I think Nikki Rodd could do eight hours a day. You know what I mean? I think Nikki Ryan, eight minutes.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I mean, psychologically, it's really, really brutal. Like for me, anytime I'm leading up to any event of any meaningful significance, it's horrible on a psychological level because you're always thinking about are you training enough? Are you doing enough? If you feel any signs of sickness, injury, the stress levels increase, your sleep quality decreases. It's all those little subtle things that are so hard to mitigate. So like whether you feel like you're training hard enough, you're overtraining, those to me are the most difficult aspects. And I think really those are an individual thing. And that's really something where a coach can provide.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “It would be a poetic It would be an underdog story from a man that could never win the event to run in the event on behalf of the Sheikh Tan.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think over ADCC, I think from a An ADCC perspective would make a lot of sense. I think it would make a lot of sense to wait to see if this event turns into Fire Festival first before you commit to something like that. But I think a more modern approach to the promotion of the event. Again, I keep going back to the comedians. If you want to grow your brand, whatever that may be, provide content for free and you can paywaller eventually, you can grow the audience, create the audience free. You know, I think, again, if your goal is to create. A huge sport here, then it's like if we're already a niche sport and competition aspect of that is it even smaller niche, then we need to grow that providing this content for free.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Exciting. Yeah. This is your time. It might never happen again. I fully intend to run this every year. That's the goal. But again, it might never happen again.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “To leverage that in my own sponsorship negotiations, then if I'm in a position to have this out free and also give every athlete involved the same metrics and information, like you will literally be able to see the spikes when you compete and you'll be able to take that and present it for opportunities for sponsorships, for businesses to say, look, look how many views this got. I was one of the most viewed moments of this event. So I want to put the power back in the athlete and take it away from the host.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “I mean, just because basically it's going to grow the sport. You know what I mean? Like if you have to subscribe to a platform to watch something, you have a mild interest in, a mild curiosity, and there's a financial barrier there. So I want to open it up because again, we have an investor who's contributing and is happy for it to be spent this way, happy for us not to be held hostage by these sort of streaming providers and really like, again, I'm not making accusations against flow grappling or UFC fights. They are making the right business decision by not providing streamer numbers because that's the leverage that those people can use against the streaming provider. But for me as an individual athlete that really wants to understand the metrics of how many people actually watch this sport.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I don't even think I need a trolley. I just say, hey, show us the books. Know what I mean? Like, honestly, when our event's done, we're going to be pretty transparent. Obviously, we ran as a nonprofit. Going to be pretty transparent about everything. Obviously, ultimately, all the views we get. When flow grapp, when an event on flow grappling or flight pass or any other streaming provider, unless it's a pay-per-view, you're not going to know how many people watched. So that's one aspect of what we're doing is we're going to have a visual sort of guide to how many people are off hands of grappling.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yeah, for sure. He keeps insisting on talking face to face. I don't have a problem with that, but my argument is. This is a public feud. The public, like this is a, we're having a disagreement. Let's settle the disagreement in a way that answers the question to the fans because If one of us is a complete idiot, then I believe the world of people following this story are entitled to know which one of us is an idiot.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Support the athletes. I've never once thought this was some organization where Moe's like stealing money from himself. I'm just saying that. And again, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So he might fully think that what he's doing is going to grow the sport. I'm going about it in a completely different way. I don't think we need T-Mobile. I don't think we need it behind a paywall. I think we need cheap venue, still maintain good quality production, release it for free. If you want something to grow, you can Present it for free.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Because it would be a good message to where we are in the sport. But again, considering what I know about Thomas and Max Price, which I believe we're paying $200,000 for, and T-Mobile's two million dollars. How do you justify no increase in athlete pay? Well, we have a 1.8 million increase in venue cost”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I don't see anything at blog post this jacket. Nah. Honestly, we had a disagreement about athlete compensation. I said, let's do a podcast and talk about it because I'm a big fan of transparency. If you think I'm an idiot for thinking athletes should get paid more, tell me it show it to me. And I've made public statements. Other people have asked why we don't get paid more money. You can both tell me and the world at the same time that the grappling world at the same time, but was not interested in doing the podcast. Again, maybe he thought I was going to hit him with some gotcha questions or something. But really, at the end of the day, I personally believe you got nothing to hide if you are confident in the business decisions you've made. Then there's no gotcha moment that I could actually do. I could easily, I would have done the podcast if I looked like complete idiot would have released it anyway.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I mean, to be honest. CJ was a result of the response of my discussion of athlete compensation. So me and Mo had been close friends even after the Danaher team broke up. We were still close friends for quite a while after that. But it does complicate things when someone is, for all intensive purposes, as an ADCC competitor and he runs ADC the event, he's in control of it now. He is your boss. So that does complicate our friendship.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I mean, it's been a love hate relationship. Like any good relationship, if you don't get blocked at the end of it, were you really in love to begin with My thoughts anyway. So, in terms of my friendship with me and Mo were really close friends for a long time, we'd talk a lot. He was instrumental in us moving Dana her desquad to Puerto Rico. He lives in Puerto Rico, spends most of his time in Puerto Rico. I've spent time with him in Florida, California. But in terms of our relationship, I'm trying to think of an exact time where it went south. But I guess in my, him being the ADCC organizer, my attack of athlete compensation was taken personally, which is obviously going to ruin whatever friendship you had.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Think what I offer is some balance. It's like I'm bringing some justice. Ultimately, it'll probably come back in spades to me.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “An Australian entering American banter is like neo getting his matrix skills. You're just like, whoa, I see everything coming”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Yeah, we're just trying to ruin each other's day. In a way that's so blas, you're going back and forth, and the guy that actually gets upset and says some real shit, that's your victory. You know what I mean? Like, you're like, oh. Got you. You're actually that actually bothers you. All right, who take that as a victory?”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “That's a good question. Hey, I think it would have happened after I moved to America. Because in Australia, like we just on a daily basis say some of the worst things you could ever imagine.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Chail is better. I mean, I think if you can shit talking MMA, because there's far worse consequences for you. If you're still willing to do it when really violent things can happen, do you? I mean, I'm getting death threats, but he has a certainty of violence against his opponents in MMA.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Show they have to be worthy of being attacked. You know what I mean? Like if someone attacks, that's the thing. It's like you want a worthy adversary, not in a sense of I don't want to battle someone that has better band than me because I'm going to lose, but I want to battle someone with a profile large enough that it doesn't look like you just.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Think so. I think we need. The origins of MDMA was couples therapy in the 70s in Houston, I believe. I believe something like that for us could resolve these underlying issues.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “I think so, yeah. I think, I mean, you could throw a riddle at him before the match. That'd fucking complicate things for him for the next hour.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Yeah, she for sure. I think the fans will remember it as well. I'm open to like, if we do this match, I'm taking it very serious, but we'd be open to rematches. I've always said I would have an MMA flight with her. I wouldn't be afraid to hit a big woman.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “It would have to be, I would think, half a million dollars Otherwise, I just can't Know what I mean? Have to be worth it because to put a price on a guy that takes himself as serious as Mary Gali, Mary Galli's a very serious man. He's talking about authenticity. He's talking about words he doesn't even understand For me to give him the opportunity to live in a world where he had won the last match against me, it's hard to put a price on that. You know, when people say it's not about the money, it's not about the money. It's about me waking up every day knowing that he knows he lost to me.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Sell those tickets anyway. We'll get the people hyped and then we'll just have you pull out. And I'm like, all right, do it. I'm like, do whatever you want. That's fucking probably not a good idea. But they do that. And then people keep trying to rebook this match. But now I barely even train anymore. I'm busy being a promoter, traveling around. So now instead of facing them in competition again, which I would do if the price was right, they'd have to pay me very well. Two of the shows have offered me the match, but the money terrible.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “We were meant to have a match that had been pre booked immediately after ADCC. So we agreed to this before ADC. I was like, the price is right. I'm in. So I sign up for it and I'm thinking ADC that we're going to face off soon after. Mary Gali chose instead to have some vacation time. He wanted to go on vacation. He wanted to relax, a bit of relaxation down in Brazil. So the match is scrapped. Flow hit me up and they say, Can you do February? And this was about the time that Volksford Islam in Perth. I was like, no, I can't do February because I'll be helping Volkanowski. That's going to take precedence over this match. Flo goes, you know, we'll do, we'll announce it anyway.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “I ended up sweeping him, getting on top. No points before the points period, but I'm very tired. I'm very tired at this point. Mary Gali's big. Like there's some guys that get juiced up to hit a certain weight. That's what I did to enter this division. You can't keep your gas tank. Merigali's just a big dude. Who knows if he's on the juice or not, but he's just naturally sits around 230 pounds or even two hundred twenty five. When you're naturally that big, your gas tanks a bit better again. Gluing yourself up on every substance possible. Guess thanks surprisingly not too good. So we have a bit of a close one. Decision goes my way. Ultimately, finals next, I lose that. But that is sort of our competitive history.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Then, years later, I left the team, Merigali replaced me. So they brought in a more credentialed, handsome, Don't speak as well, but they've brought him in. He's my replacement. He's coming to the team. We face off at ADC. I do a heavier division thinking I looked at the names and I was like, that looks like an easier division. And I had two teammates at the time that were in my 88. And I was like, those guys will have to face off first round. I'll have to face one of them second round the way they do the seating and the structure of the bracket. So I was like, I'll do 99. I'll leave 88 for the boys. They both lost my division first round, unfortunately. So I faced off against Marigali beginning of day two. Lot of pressure because Dana's used to corner me, used to be my coach. Now he's cornering the Brazilians who used to complain about as the enemy. And I'm like, what's going on over here? It's like karate kids stuff. I face off against Marigali. I go hard early because I think he can't defend leglocks. For the first three minutes, I'm just attacking legs, legs, legs.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “My history of Nicholas Mariga actually dates back to a time where probably he does not even remember. When I used to wear a kimono. So I went to Abu Dhabi World. I was chasing my ghee dreams. I lost in, I can't even remember, again, probably the final, not me. I probably lost in the final against Tommy Langlaker in the weight division. This was the last year they did the absolute. I went into the absolute. I made it all the way to the semis, Nicholas Marigali destroyed me in the gay. I did hit a nice little reversal on him though. He passed my guard, and I somehow reversed him from sight control. That's the only part of the match I share. After which he swept me, submitted me.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Most of these guys had an opportunity to be a part of an event that really there's no downside to. You have a chance to be paid more money than you've ever been paid in your life. You're selling tickets that are going to go to charity, and it's not behind a paywall. So anyone anywhere in the world can stream this event, watch it, and there's no barrier to entry in terms of finances.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “My thoughts were, if I was in his position and I never was, obviously a prodigy, a talent like that, is I thought he had a position to make a statement in the sport to kind of, as cheesy as it sounds, be on the right side of history, to have turned down a double grand slam to be in an event that supports athlete pay. Again, I don't overly criticize him, but I think in terms of your legacy and reputation to be at a point and choose to do that is much more memorable than him getting that double grand slam, which I'm sure he will win the ADCC 77 kilo division this year, but it'll be somewhat tarnished anyway. So I do feel bad for some of the athletes that win this year and potentially people be like, oh, yeah, but that was half the people weren't in the division. I feel bad for those guys, but at the end of the day,”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “More to that story, too, in terms of Mika doing ADCC because a bunch of the kids in his team, I think they're being flowing out to do the ADC kids event. So there's like his two teammates, well at least one of his teammates will be doing the ADCC 66 kilo division. So his dad, his coach doesn't really want to split time between two events. That's a difficulty for athletes there. But obviously disappointing. We couldn't secure Mika. Mika said he was about the legacy. So he wanted to be the youngest guy ever to double Grand Slam, which is basically win all the gee events and win the ADC that same year.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Offered pretty significant show money to stay, but they hit me up and they said, hey, promise us one thing, we're on opposite sides of the brackets, and we'll fight to the death in the final for the million. And we know, everyone knows that. We've seen him compete against each other multiple times. So that was not a surprise because I know they're good kids, but basically turned down, allegedly show money to do this event to support the event to me is incredible. Mikael, things would be more complicated there. Like obviously Mika officially joined ADCC before he secured the Ratolos. Kade beat him in the final. Mika's personally motivated to face off against Kate. So he didn't know Kate was in our event before he agreed to ADCC.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “I mean, we can name names. I mean, obviously, Cainan, he was a semi-in, semi-out. His suggestion was actually to do a second and third place prize. Than a million. And I'm like, no, we want all or nothing. It's all or nothing here. That's a better spectacle, better entertainment. Probably more injuries, but it's all or nothing. Mika Galva, the one that got away. We got the Retolas. The Retolas. Props to these kids because Cade's the reigning champion. These are two of the best guys in the sport Allegedly”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Agree to the event, let alone coordinate hey, what date do you want to come in? It's like herding cats. So really just the interpersonal stuff's been difficult. Obviously, going up against ADCC, the legacy of M, has been pretty damn difficult as well. Well established, huge history. They've been selling tickets for two years. Everyone's known it's been coming for two years. That thing was largely sold out before we even announced the event. So we're going head to head with this event. So from a ticket sales perspective, very difficult.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Navigating this area. One other aspect is because we did this basically from idea to event will be lesson three months, three and a half months. So it's like we're having to do so much in such a short period of time. Little things like of the show money we've given them. They're expected to basically secure their own flight and hotel to the event. With cutting down on staff, because that would be one of the, if I had to coordinate, getting these guys' flights, I would just jump off a building. Like it's hard enough to get them.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “First one was people believing it was real. Was quite difficult, and then communicating with the athletes. That's basically my responsibility is securing these guys, getting these guys to commit to things. It's very difficult. There's a reason a few athletes in every sport really stand out. And it's kind of professionalism and kind of the way they market themselves. And I think those two things do go hand in hand. So we're in a sport where there's not enough money where a lot of these guys do have managers. I think in MMA, things would be a lot easier for the promoter because you're not talking directly to the athlete. You're talking to a guy who might, who's obviously taking a cut, but like there's a middleman. So in a situation where you're talking directly to the athlete, it can be very difficult, can be very annoying, can be very hard to reach these guys. They can be very non-committal. That, for me, has been one of the biggest challenges, the guys that I speak to that are like, I'm in. And then they're like, I'm out. I'm in.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “That physically will, yeah Ticket proceeds to charity. So, like, obviously, we've got the $3 million budget, we've got production expenses, we've got a team of staff to hire. But if we could sell this thing out, we could potentially donate a ton of money to charity. One of those charities is tap cancer out. And what's great about this is Rich Byrne is a black belt from New York who's in the banking world. He used to run an event called Kasai Grappling. He went through cancer. He basically had a very aggressive cancer. He had it treated. And now he basically has said to us that whatever we donate from the profits of the event, he's going to match dollar for dollar. And we've also had another guy who wants to remain anonymous agree to match dollar for dollar as well. So the more ticket sales revenue we can create here, the more we can actually give back to charity. So it's really all round. It's going to be a great event.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “And then you get a million every year. If this is a crazy, exciting event, the funding's going to be so easy year after year. And the other aspect we're doing to it is unfortunately I'm not going to make any money off this thing. It's a non-profit. And the money from charity.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Audience and really then ultimately we can get to a level where it could be behind a paywall but I just don't think we're yet”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Very generous friend of mine has provided this money. I'm like, unless you guys go out there and try to kill each other and put it all on the line, I just won't do it again. I'm giving you guys a massive platform. We've turned down offers from streaming platforms that wanted to buy the rights to this event because if the marketing's gone very well, we're turning down money to grow the sport. The ADCC promoter said he wanted to grow the sport. So what he did is he put it behind a paywall and he used the money from the paywall to buy a more expensive arena. I don't think that's how you grow the sport. I think you grow the sport. Like comedians do these days. Like guys like Mark Norman will release a special for free. Andrew Schultz did it first. He released a special for free and it grew his audience massively. I think that's what Jiu-Jitsu needs. We need an exciting show that's not behind a paywall that'll grow the sport, grow the”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “You just sit there and go, oh, let's ride this to the end. That's why I want rounds so that you might take guys back, you really incentivize to get that finish. And the way we're trying to grow the sport is to steal the MMA scoring structure, which a lot of people are criticized because they think it's overly complicated. They don't understand it. But to the mass audience, they understand a 10-point must understand a decision in that sense. They understand it being scored round by round. So we're trying to appeal to a broader audience here. But we think based on the structure, based on how hard we'll call stalling penalties, based on you wanting to finish your opponent quick to have a better chance at a million dollars because it's ten thousand and one to show up and a million to win. If you ain't first your last, there's no reward for second place. So I'm punishing the one position of only ever been out of achieve employment.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “Getting into that. That's a smart thing to do. There's a million dollars on the line. You should probably invest in that. But I also like a new surface that no one's competed on. No one's gamed it yet. No one's like, we're going to see it unfold. Like when UFC, when people started figuring out how to use the cage, we're going to see this unfold in front of our very eyes, how the strategies work for this. The other thing we've done too is we're doing rounds. So qualifying rounds would be three, five minute rounds. The final would be five fives. Why I want to do that is to incentivize action. We're going to incentivize action through penalizing people, but we really want, I love a short burst, a break, and the guys can go hard again. I don't like a jiu-jitsu match where the guy takes the back early and he's like, oh, if I keep this position, I've won. And that's something that people that don't compete.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Same size at least, but in terms of the training for it, obviously the athlete's very difficult. Some of these guys have gone out there and built their own angled walls.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Be honest, I combated for karate combat twice. Never once did I ever step foot into the pit. Just, again, like you said before the podcast, if there's a right way of doing things, I'm probably doing the opposite.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Unless I'm fire up. Like, you need a Coliseum-like structure, which is basically what we've attempted to create so that you get both a perfect place to wrestle, to grapple in, as well as a perfect viewing angle for the fence.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Platform sort of stage, you can see clearly into because it's basically flat. But the athletes could fall off and injure themselves. So if something happens to UFC fire passes, the elevated flat stage, it's kind of scary to be near the edge. You go off, you're going to land on concrete. You might want to do that, did the other guy, if you're that way inclined. But the alley, the angled wall solves all those problems. Very minimal referee interference. Again, the only thing that holds people back is the expense of building it. But again, when you're spending someone else's money, you will spare no expense in production. So we've spent a lot of money on the alley and we've really gone out of our way to create an experience that around the alley, we've elevated everything so that the people watching without a seat down into it. Because Adam, your instinctual thought is, oh, it sounds great, but how am I going to see in it?”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “An adjustment in the reset. It's cheating to a certain extent. It's just more of an annoyance. They bring it back, they reset it to the best of their ability in the center. The angled woe mitigates that. And it mitigates it in such a way that is a disadvantage to be pushed up against the angle wall. You're very easily taken down against the angled wall. You could use a cage like the UFC does or any sort of MMA organization. However, cage wrestling can be slow. You're obviously at the vertical and it can stagnate there. Guys are very good at using split squats to really defend that position. And for me personally, I don't love the cage for grappling. I'd like to differentiate it for grappling. What holds people back from using the alley or a pit-like structure is the viewing, the viewing angle. Because if obviously if you're one of the VIPs or you pay for expensive seat, that angled wall's above you. A cage you can see into an elevator.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “But why this is brilliant? Why the angled walls are brilliant for grappling? It's because any grappling, Tom, this goes without question, goes IBGF, ADCC. The reset is one of the most annoying aspects of the sport. And one of the aspects of the sport that some of these sneakier guys take advantage of, there's guys out there that are brilliant at playing the edge, open the reflex at them, or they'll shoot a takedown near the edge. And you might watch, and again, I'm picking on ADCC here, but you might watch an ADCC match where 90 seconds of a 10-minute match is the referee grabbing them, bringing them back to the center, or trying to recreate something of a position that landed outside. Not only is that sort of boring to me, and it sort of could be biased. Again, it's happened to me in events where like, I've, the rest's gone, stop. I've stopped. He's moved a little bit more.”

    2024-08-14 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #439 – Craig Jones: Jiu Jitsu, $2 Million Prize, CJI, ADCC, Ukraine & Trolling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source