Craig Jones BJJ: Stats, Background, & Training Tips (Breakdown)

Craig Jones is one of the best no-gi BJJ grapplers alive.

He’s known for his deadly inside heel hook and his wins against the likes of Keenan Cornelius, Gilbert Burns, Leandro Lo — and breaking Gordon Ryan‘s arm.

He’s also known for creating Mexican Ground Karate.

In this article, you’ll learn about Craig Jones’ BJJ stats, background, training tips, no-gi gear, and more.

Let’s dive in.

(NOTE: The source of this information is from Craig Jones himself: his AMAs on reddit. You can find his reddit account here, where he posts regularly on r/BJJ)

Craig Jones BJJ Stats & Background

Craig Jones is 31 years old. He was born on July 12 1991, in Adelaide, Australia.

He’s 6 foot tall (184cm) and weighs between 194-218 lbs, competing at both the 88kg and 99kg weight classes.

He trains out of “The B-Team Jiu Jitsu” in Austin, Texas.

Craig Jones’ BJJ record is 52 wins, 19 losses.

He competes in no-gi, despite the fact that he does love training in the gi.

Craig Jones started training jiu-jitsu in 2006 with dreams of becoming a UFC fighter.

He began his training under a blue belt. At the beginning of his BJJ journey, he was largely self-taught, relying on early Ryan Hall instructionals and YouTube to learn.

Craig almost quit jiu-jitsu after high school. It wasn’t until purple belt, when he began training under Lachlan Giles, that he felt like he started to rapidly improve and make a name for himself.

“My training was very limited until purple belt. I’d train 2-3x a week mixing in mma classes too. I was basically just an MMA fan boy that never thought I had any real potential. I was studying full time and working 30 hours a week as well. My gym was closed doors and didn’t have a black belt so I’d drill video instructionals whenever I could with my main training partner Lachlan Warne.”

“I started making a hard push midway through purple belt mainly with the goal of opening a gym and it culminated in me winning ADCC trials and nogi worlds. I moved to train with Lachlan Giles and he immediately gave me my brown belt and the my black belt 12 months later. 6 months after my black belt I had ADCC 2017 and gained some notoriety and was on the road teaching seminars almost full time from then on, ultimately settling with the danaher squad before ADCC 2019.”

One of his primary motivations is is remaining better than his training partners. He says “there is no worse feeling than taking a break and people are catching up.”

Over the past several years, Craig Jones has gone on to win Polaris, win silver in ADCC, and attain various other placements in IBJJF, EBI, Kasai, and more.

Craig Jones BJJ Training Schedule

Before preparing for competition, Craig Jones trains 1 hard, 90-minute sessions every day of the week. All of his sessions are no-gi.

He doesn’t follow the training methods of other professional BJJ players (like Mikey Musumeci), who “train themselves into the ground.” Craig prefers to be fresh for every session.

Craig trained 4-5x a week as an amateur. But once he moved to Absolute MMA in Melbourne to train and teach full-time under Lachlan Giles, that’s when his skills took off.

Every session he trains, he goes in with a very narrow focus. Just like Gordon Ryan, he does “specific training” — going into a session training and refining a specific technique.

For example, if he’s working on guard passing, he’ll practice guard passing while rolling. Every time he passes, he will let his training partner recover.

However, if he’s rolling against high-level training partners, he rolls normally.

Craig Jones also does 2 strength training sessions per week. When he’s cutting weight, he’ll also do a lot of swimming to improve his cardio. He finds it helps him control his breathing during rolls.

Craig Jones BJJ Training Tips

On Reddit, Craig Jones regularly shares updates about his own training, and his training tips for other jiujiteiros. Below, I’ll summarize some of his BJJ training tips.

The closer you are to white belt, the more drilling is necessary.
The closer you are to black belt, the more situational sparring is necessary.
The best BJJ techniques are chokes, because some crazy guys won’t tap to leg locks — but everyone taps to chokes.
The most legitimate BJJ techniques are the ones that work in high-level matches. Find techniques that work in competition, and then learn them from a quality instructional. You shouldn’t bother with techniques that don’t work in competition.
To learn BJJ techniques, first drill the technique without resistance to make sure you can do the move. Then, start applying it to lower-level guys in the gym.
BJJ players should travel often to train with people in other gyms. Visiting high-level gyms and rolling is one of the best ways to find out what parts of your game need work, and it brings you down to earth.
Static drilling gives you the movement of a technique, but positional sparring gives you the timing. Timing is arguably more important, because a perfect technique at the wrong time won’t succeed.
A good way to get better at jiu-jitsu fast is to set challenges with deadlines. Use Parkinson’s law: the perceived complexity of a task will expand to fill the time allotted to it. Craig uses this mental model to make small, fast improvements in his game.
If you want to become a better BJJ player, become a student of the game. Play with new techniques. Ask how people do things. Analyze matches: what works, what doesn’t work, and why. Every time you go to train, have a few techniques on your mind that you want to work on.
“If you want to become a great jiu jitsu player with a deep game there are no short cuts. It will take years. If you want to be an effective grappler, study high percentage moves black belts hit and perfect them.”

Craig Jones Rash Guards

Craig Jones is known for his hilarious, funny rash guard collection.

His rash guards include…

****CraigJones Rash Guard

Plan B Rash Guard

Only Fans Rash Guard

Leopard Print Rash Guard

Mexican Ground Karate Rash Guard

Craig has a great sense of humor and it shows with his no-gi BJJ gear. But don’t let it fool you — the man will take your head off on the mats!

Craig Jones BJJ: Conclusion

Craig Jones is one of the top no-gi grapplers in the world today.

And he’s one of the most beloved BJJ athletes because he’s a down-to-earth, funny guy.

He freely shares his training tips on places like Reddit, and releases top-rated instructionals on BJJFanatics.

Craig’s rash guard collection is hilarious, and you can purchase many of them for yourself on sites like XMARTIAL.

What’s your favorite thing about Craig Jones? Is there a particular technique that he’s taught you that has improved your game?

Tsavo Neal

Tsavo is the founder of BJJ Equipment and BJJ blue belt who started training in 2019. He’s a passionate hobbyist and BJJ gear/equipment aficionado who wanted to share his favorite pickups with other jiujiteiros. He launched BJJ Equipment in 2022 to make it easy for jiu-jitsu practitioners to find the best BJJ gear so they look, feel, and perform at their best on the mats.