Luke Rockhold Says ADCC Is ‘Watering Down’ Grappling

Luke Rockhold recently opened up to give his opinions on the upcoming ADCC world championship, and he didn’t hold back at all. Rockhold is known for being one of the top MMA fighters in the world throughout his career, but he’s also been pretty heavily involved in the grappling world as well. He won gold medals at the IBJJF World Championship and the IBJJF No Gi World Championship during his time as a colored belt, and he’s faced some of the best grapplers in the world in recent years. This all led in to his recent invitation to the over 80kg division of the Craig Jones Invitational, the event that is famously taking on ADCC head-to-head.

When Luke Rockhold was asked for his thoughts on the Craig Jones Invitational on the JAXXON podcast, he was clear about what he thought the benefits were:

“Money talks… It’s bringing awareness to the sport where they’ve been kind of watering it down through ADCC and it’s just getting worse and worse, and so it’s like bringing the sport to a light. Grappling is very popular and it deserves to be paid more.”

His opinion echoes that of other top competitors and Craig Jones himself, as grappler pay was the driving force behind him creating his own tournament. Rockhold was clear that he thinks the lack of pay in the sport has been holding it back:

“The top athletes competing, killing each other month in and month out to go to this Olympics quote-unquote for $10,000 is f***ing bullsh*t! You’re not going to get the best grappling, you’re not going to get the best performance.”

He’s not wrong either, professional grappling has never been a sport where athletes can make huge amounts of money and historically they have had to hold other jobs or teach during their competitive careers. Naturally that is going to have an effect on how much someone can train and, by extension, how good they are able to get. Rockhold thinks that Jones might be able to change that though:

“People want to see the best of the best and this is bringing awareness to it. Like every sport, they needed someone to stand up and Craig’s making that stand. I’m happy to be a part of it.”

The interview with Luke Rockhold where he discusses the effect that ADCC has on the sport of grappling was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the JAXXON podcast: