Last updated: August 9, 2026. Craig Jones Invitational 3 (CJI 3) has been one of the most chaotic storylines in grappling this year — announced with a massive prize pool, then cancelled, and now reportedly being revived in a scaled-down form. This page is a running hub for what’s confirmed so far. We’ll keep it updated as real details land.
The Original CJI 3 Plan: $10M Prize Pool & Jones vs. Danis
CJI 3 was first floated as an eight-athlete, single-night bracket with a jaw-dropping $10 million prize pool, headlined by a superfight between Craig Jones and Dillon Danis. Jones said the event would be backed by crypto investor Roger Ver, and at one point shared a partial screenshot of a Bitcoin wallet reportedly holding more than $14 million to back up the numbers. It was, even by Craig Jones standards, a wild pitch — and it never came together.
Jones made the pairing official on Instagram on February 6, 2026, framing it as a fight for “greatest grappler in the world” between jiu-jitsu’s number-two ranked competitor (Jones himself) and Danis, who carries a much bigger mainstream profile as a pound-for-pound MMA and grappling name. At the time of that announcement, no date, venue, or prize figure had actually been locked in — those specifics, including the $10M number, emerged afterward.
Why Fans Were Skeptical Of Danis’s Involvement From The Start
Even when the Jones-Danis pairing was fresh news, plenty of fans and outlets were doubtful it would actually happen. Danis has a well-documented history of pulling out of scheduled fights, and he was banned from the UFC following an incident at UFC 322. That track record is a big part of why, even before the $10M version of CJI 3 got scrapped, many assumed Danis wouldn’t actually end up on the mat — a prediction that, so far, has held up.
CJI 3 Is Cancelled — Jones “Decided To Keep The Money”
In July 2026, Craig Jones confirmed the $10M version of CJI 3 was off. In his own words, the event was “cancelled. Decided to keep the money.” Dillon Danis’s involvement never materialized into a signed, promoted fight, and the crypto-funded, eight-man bracket concept appears to be dead.
Craig Jones Wants To Bring CJI 3 Back — Scaled Down
Shortly after killing the original concept, Jones indicated he still wants to run CJI 3 — just not at the scale originally promised. He’s been explicit that fans shouldn’t expect anything close to the original number, essentially telling people “don’t expect a million dollars again.” The format is undecided; Jones has suggested a possible return to CJI 1’s individual-bracket format rather than the team format used at CJI 2.
What’s Still Unknown
- No date or venue has been announced for CJI 3.
- Format is unconfirmed — individual bracket (CJI 1 style) vs. team format (CJI 2 style).
- Athlete availability is complicated by ADCC and UFC BJJ exclusivity contracts, which limit which grapplers Jones can realistically book.
- Jones has publicly flagged that CJI 2’s refereeing needs fixing before CJI 3 happens.
- No confirmed opponent list, including whether Dillon Danis factors in at all going forward.
Catch Up: CJI 1 & CJI 2
New to the Craig Jones Invitational? Catch up on how we got here: CJI 1 ran August 16–17, 2024, and CJI 2 ran August 30–31, 2025, both at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. See our full CJI 2 results and recap, plus the original CJI 1 lineup and CJI 1 results coverage.
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