Craig Jones can boast silver medals at the ADCC World Championships in Las Vegas (2022) and Anaheim (2019). In addition, he has won medals in Polaris tournaments many times. This time, however, a special challenge awaited him, as he faced Brazilian Gabi Garcia. She has so far won four gold medals at the ADCC World Championships (in Nottingham, Beijing, Espoo and Anaheim).
Unbelievable scenes. A man fought a woman in jiu-jitsu
An unusual situation occurred the day before the fight, when during a face-to-face meeting Jones decided to… kiss his rival.
– Really? You're a f***. F*** you, you crossed the line – Garcia shouted in Portuguese at the fleeing fighter. He decided that “Brazilians have no sense of humor” and announced that the fight was off. However, he withdrew those words shortly after.
The fight took place on Saturday during the “Craig Jones Invitational”. Right at the start, Jones went for a takedown, but it was defended. Although Garcia had her opponent's head caught, she had no idea what to do next. So she lost her grip, but maintained the position from the top. What's more, when Jones tried to get up, the competitor went behind his back. He cleverly freed himself and then applied a “leg triangle”. It was not possible to complete it, so Garcia was on top again.
Then she tried to submit her opponent with an ankle lock, but again without success. She made a mistake then and Jones ended up in a mount. Little happened until the end of the round. However, the Australian did not want to “put the audience to sleep” and every now and then he provoked the competitor with various behaviors, which amused the fans. The second round also began with a takedown attempt, although there was nothing concrete from it.
It took only four minutes for Jones to get behind her back and force her to submit. The media claims that the fight was watched by a total of 150,000 viewers. Jones, however, believes that the viewership was much higher – 1.2 million.
They both thanked each other after the fight. They also noted that it was an interesting experience for them. It cannot be ruled out that we will have the opportunity to see more fights like this between a man and a woman.