Dana White: "UFC offered me 6 figures” - Craig Jones sounds off on Dana White and co. for manipulating BJJ athletes to compete in Mikey Musumeci-led show

Craig Jones has slammed UFC CEO Dana White and the promotion following the season finale of UFC BJJ: Road to the Title. The show is a spin-off of the UFC's successful reality show The Ultimate Fighter. However, according to Jones, the promotion stole the design for their competition area from the Australian and Karate Combat, who had co-patented the mat design in 2024.

Furthermore, Jones criticized the UFC for signing athletes to exclusive contracts for the show. This means that the athletes who competed at UFC BJJ: Road to the Title cannot compete at other Brazilian jiu-jitsu events around the world.

One such event, the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) hosted by his namesake, will be taking place in August 2025. The CJI was founded in 2024, and saw a vast improvement in the prize money won by athletes competing.

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Jones had hoped to improve athlete-pay throughout the sport with his CJI concept, and he felt that the UFC's exclusive contracts moved the sport in the wrong direction.

He took his Instagram story to slam the UFC and White, writing:

"UFC offered me 6 figures to coach against Mikey and compete against him but would have been fully exclusive. The sport is now entering an era where athletes won't be able to do ADCC or CJI. Feels wrong. Feels bad."

He added:

"And one final annoyance. Until I formerly declined coaching the UFC BJJ show, their athletes could compete at CJI."

Screenshot of Jones' posts about the UFC and Dana White

Screenshot of Jones' post about UFC BJJ and White

Mikey Musumeci responds to Craig Jones' scathing review of UFC BJJ

Mikey Musumeci was one of the coaches for the UFC BJJ: Road to the Title show which aired in June. He and Craig Jones had previously traded words over the use of steroids in the sport.

But following Jones' recent comments about the UFC's grappling show, Musumeci shared a response to the Australian whilst appearing infront of the media. He said:

"Thank you again for helping us create this format. You definitely had an impact on it with CJI. I think that showed us all that that was a great ruleset... We used that format and we made it a bit better... Craig took the Karate Combat pit, we took that pit and made it cooler."

Catch Mikey Musumeci's response to Craig Jones below (10:25):

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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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Outside of work, Liam enjoys playing cricket, practising Brazilian jiu-jitsu, cooking, music, and reading.

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Edited by Tejas Rathi