"Legally speaking” - Craig Jones’ war with UFC continues by accusing the promotion of artificially inflating their viewership

Craig Jones has continued to fire shots in the direction of the UFC following the promotion's decision to release a spin-off of their The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show.

The spin-off features Brazilian jiu-jitsu athletes, instead of aspiring MMA fighters, and will feature two coaches in the form of BJJ black belts Mikey Musumeci and Rerisson Gabriel.

Several weeks ago, the Australian grappling took aim at the UFC for the design of their competition area. Jones hinted that the promotion had stolen certain ideas from himself and Karate Combat, who had already patented a very similar design for the mat-space of their own competitions

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In a fresh series of claims, Jones hinted that the UFC might be artificially inflating their viewership numbers for the UFC BJJ: Road to the Title series. The BJJ black belt shared his thoughts on his Instagram story, where he highlighted the discrepancy in views between episodes.

Jones pointed out that episode 1 and 2 of the show both garnered at least 1 million views on YouTube. The next three episodes, however, produced 193K, 164K and 78K respectively. The Australian grappler took to Instagram and wrote:

"Allegedly legally speaking this math doesn't make sense."

Screenshot of Craig Jones' post on Instagram

He continued by highlighting how far outside the median viewership Episode 2's was, writing:

"Bit outside the range here"

Craig Jones explains the rough side to being a UFC cornerman

Craig Jones is one of the world's best Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners. As such, the Australian has worked with numerous elite MMA fighters in his life. In 2021 he began working with UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. 'The Great' was preparing for a title defense against submission specialist Brian Ortega, and employed the expertise of Jones to prepare.

The BJJ star has not left Volkanovski's corner since, having featured as part of his coaching staff for every fight that 'The Great' has had since. Jones most recently also featured in Jack Della Maddalena's corner when he faced Belal Muhammad for the welterweight title at UFC 315.

During a recent interview with Chris Williamson, he said:

"I really don't like cornering MMA fights because you more feel relief that your guy got out of there healthy and okay. One thing MMA doesn't show enough is how badly hurt these guys are after the fight. Quite often the camera will avoid the guy that's unconscious for three minutes. From a coach's perspective, from a friend's perspective... That's a traumatic experience as well."

Catch Craig Jones' comments below (1:17:00):

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Liam is a MMA and Boxing writer at Sportskeeda. His journey into MMA journalism began with a high school diploma in 2017, but his passion for writing led him to diverse experiences, including internships in research and writing roles and accounting work.

Liam's fascination with MMA was sparked by Conor McGregor, with Dustin Poirier's bout against Dan Hooker in 2020 sealing his love for the sport. Poirier remains Liam's favorite fighter, whom he admires for his attitude, fighting style, and persona both inside and outside the cage. He is an advocate for the removal of the 12-6 elbow rule in MMA.

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Edited by Tejas Rathi