FIRST THINGS FIRST
Welcome to Open Note Grappling.
Every Tuesday morning I send out a breakdown of the best combat sports action. In less than 10 minutes you'll learn how the top fighters win and anything else fighters, martial artists, and fight fans need to know.
I’m back after a much needed couple weeks away from my computer. While I was gone the second Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) ended in extreme controversy, both the UFC and ONE Championship had wild fights won on superior grappling, and now ADCC trials have started up again! Today I want to touch on all and look ahead at where grappling is going in a post CJI world.
Before we get started I want to shout out this week’s sponsor Choju.
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Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
TYE RUOTOLO MAKES HIS MMA DEBUT:
The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Phenom Wins A Blood And Guts Battle
ONE Championship is on its last legs, but they’re still squeezing out good fights. This weekend they matched up Adrian Lee and Tye Ruotolo.
Adrian Lee is the younger brother of Angela and Christian Lee. Both have ONE Championship MMA titles on their record. Adrian is only 19 and was 3-0 going into he fight with Tye. He is supposed to be the next one up.
Tye is Kade Ruotolo’s twin. They’ve been two of the hottest names of grappling since they could walk. Since reaching adulthood the pair has collected grappling championships in the IBJJF, ADCC, FloGrappling’s WNO, and ONE Championship.
They are also supposed to be the next ones up.
Lee - Ruotolo was a rare meeting of two potential future combat sports superstars well before their prime. The fight did not disappoint.
Tye drops on a single leg. Lee sprawls and starts smacking him. Tye reaches for the far hip and Lee counters by throwing him with an uchi mata. Tye hangs on to the leg with coyote half guard. He uses it to get back to his feet, take Lee down, and land in side control.
Tye Ruotolo - Adrian Lee
After getting Lee to the floor, Tye was trying to pass and punch. Lee fought back with a spastic guard and up kicks. He even managed to throw up an arm bar!
Lee is reaching up to play rubber guard and striking with his free arm. Tye is leaning forward and that gives Lee space to throw up an arm bar. Tye slams and punches his way out of it. Lee kicks Tye away and throws some more up kicks before Tye settles back into Lee’s full guard.
Tye Ruotolo - Adrian Lee
Later in the round Tye showed some classic Brazilian jiu-jitsu passing we rarely see in MMA.
Tye has just shrugged off a loose triangle and is trying to pass. Lee is framing, kicking, and throwing his legs up to keep him off. Tye uses an over under pass to settle Lee’s hips down and flatten him out. Then he gets an under hook from half guard and slides into mount.
Tye Ruotolo - Adrian Lee
Before the round ended, Lee managed to fight out from underneath Tye with a relatively unorthodox mount escape.
Tye has postured up in mount to punch. Lee holds on to pull Tye down. When Lee’s grip breaks he throws his legs in front of Tye to kick him away. Tye grabs a single on his way back up. When Tye lets go Lee tries to flurry. Tye covers up and rolls with the punches to avoid most of the damage.
Tye Ruotolo - Adrian Lee
I don’t teach that mount escape because of the flexibility it requires and the risk of self injury it presents. Still cool to see someone pull it off instead of getting bludgeoned in mount.
Midway through the second round Tye’s grappling technique was giving him an edge over Lee. Lee was fighting back, but Tye’s technical depth and experience in grueling grappling matches gave him an edge over Lee. Then Tye used a classic jiujitsu technique we hardly see in MMA. I can’t think of a single MMA fighter that regularly uses this other than Alexandre Pantoja.
Tye has a rear body lock. Then he jumps up and kicks out the back of Lee’s legs to get to the crab ride. Tye starts pulling on Lee’s chin turns him to get his first hook in. The he throws his second hook in over Lee’s arm to take the back.
Tye Ruotolo - Adrian Lee
After the referee pulled the fighters out from under the ropes Ruotolo snatched up an excellent rear naked choke.
Tye gets his right arm under Lee’s chin. Lee does a good job pulling Tye’s support arm down. Tye grabs his own wrist to support the choke before switching to a palm to palm grip so he can finish the choke.
Tye Ruotolo - Adrian Lee
This fight was awesome. If you have Amazon Prime you should definitely go back and watch it. The matchmaking was certainly questionable though.
There is no reason to match up two young rising stars this early in their careers. This is a fight promoters should build to over time. If anything, the matchmaking tells me ONE is truly on their way out and doesn’t have opponents to give either of them. I hope Lee and Ruotolo can get out of the promotion so their careers can grow appropriately.
MASON JONES BRUTALIZES BOLAJI OKI
A Nominee For Comeback Of The Year
On the undercard of the UFC’s return trip to Paris we got an insane back and forth fight between Mason Jones and Bolaji Oki. Early in the fight, Oki was blasting through Jones.
Oki hurts Jones with a right before dropping him with a left. Jones gets his legs in front and grabs Oki’s glove with his right. When Oki stands with his hands free, Jones holds his ankle to off balance him. Then he grabs a collar tie before kicking Oki off and safely getting back to his feet.
Mason Jones - Bolaji Oki
Ok so the glove grab wasn’t necessarily the most legal move. I was still impressed with how well he used his grip and guard to avoid damage. That’s exactly what a good jiujitsu guard is for after all!
Before the round had ended Jones was on top showing some crafty passing and limb attacks.
Jones hits a knee slice without a far under hook and Oki starts to get up. Jones covers Oki’s head to keep him down and take north south. Jones holds Oki’s hips to keep him flat and expose his elbows. Jones goes to side and gets a far under hook. Then he shin pins Oki’s right arm and attacks a kimura.
Mason Jones - Bolaji Oki
Oki was able to straighten his arm out and avoid submitting. But in the second round the fight was all Jones’s.
Jones has an over under clinch. He steps behind Oki’s right foot to stick it to the floor and launch Oki onto his back. Jones is in side. He sneaks in an elbow before trying to step to mount. Oki catches Jones’s leg on a butterfly hook. Jones settles in to half guard before sliding his knee out to mount.
Mason Jones - Bolaji Oki
When Jones got mount on the cage the fight was done.
Jones is elbowing Oki. Oki tries to push him away. Jones briefly threads his arm for something like a half nelson to put Oki’s shoulders down. Then he just starts elbowing again. He continues the elbow onslaught until the referee decides enough is enough.
Mason Jones - Bolaji Oki
It’s interesting to compare Jones and Tye Ruotolo’s mount attack.
Tye postured up so much that he gave Adrian Lee room to move, throw his legs up, and escape. Conversely, Jones kept a lower posture and almost always had a hand on the mat so he had a strong wide base with just enough room to elbow.
Both of these fights were thrilling for as long as they lasted. If you haven’t yet, go back and watch them.
HELP DESK UPDATES: 2026 ADCC ROOKIE REPORT
Stay Ahead Of ADCC 2026 And Grappling’s Next Stars
We’re hardly more than a week past CJI 2 and it’s already time to get ready for ADCC 2026. The sport moves quick.
In the lead up to ADCC 2026 we’ll be profiling the next crop of ADCC newcomers. After each ADCC trials event finishes we’ll look at who won 1st place for the first time so we can get a look at who is going to be leading the sport and what technical developments they’re bringing.
The first ADCC Rookie Report is on the Polish wunderkind Nikodem Mikuliszyn. If you want a closer look at how he makes butterfly guard work at the highest level and some interesting hand fighting quirks he brings you’ll want to read this.
If you want to follow the next generation of stars, learn what makes them special, and see how they’re changing grappling click here to upgrade your subscription and access the the Help Desk. The Help Desk comes with:
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Analysis of classic fights with high level grappling
Regularly updated articles on techniques, athletes, and principles of fighting
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
More From Mason Jones and Tye Ruotolo vs Adrian Lee
You can watch the highlights from Tye Ruotolo’s match with Adrian Lee here.
This is Mason Jones’s second UFC run and you should really check out his fights in Cage Warriors.
Here is the fight that earned him his first UFC shot. He showed a high level blend of positional advancement while punishing his opponent.
You can watch the fight that earned him a second chance here. Not much grappling here but Jones shows impressive durability and a keen eye for damage on the feet.
THE FALLOUT FROM CRAIG JONES INVITATIONAL 2
Correction
After I wrote this it was announced New Wave would not be getting win money because the investor was unaware of the rule explaining what happens when a score is tied.
While I was on vacation I missed CJI 2. In retrospect, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
The Craig Jones Invitational is an insane spectacle. From the promotion and production to the actual athlete pay, CJI is an elite grappling event that no one can compete with.
But the matches themselves left a little to be desired.
Professional grappling is a slow sport watched primarily by practitioners. And when you throw a 1 million dollars on the line, athletes are going to go out of their way to make sure they don’t make a stupid mistake. That means we can expect less risk taking, and, consequently, less action.
What I didn’t expect was the backlash the event got. Nearly every corner of the jiujitsu world stood up to complain about the event.
Some claimed the rules weren’t clear and the wrong team won. Others said that the women should have made more money, especially after the anonymous donor decided to throw an extra million at team New Wave after their controversial loss. Lastly, people came to argue against all detractors saying that we should just be grateful someone is putting their neck on the line to raise the purses in grappling.
Tthe totality of these complaints points to what actually is in the way of grappling being a real professional sport.
What is professional grappling? Is it in the gi, or without it? Do the matches have rounds, points, or are they submission only? Is it a team sport, or do only individuals take the wins, losses, and money?
Grappling can’t be a professional sport because it doesn’t really exist! There is no one ruleset that’s agreed upon.
To be clear, that’s not Craig Jones nor his event’s fault. CJI is literally designed as a one off super event to raise money for charity and pay athletes more. And he’s more than succeeded at that already.
Lost in all of the complaints is why the event matters.
CJI presents an alternative to the powers that be (and the ones that want to be) in the sport. It’s like a fucking merit based lottery ticket. I personally know an athlete that’s using the money to finance a new business. He’s not set for life, but his life is now set up for success in a way that would not be possible without CJI.
And this gets even more frustrating when you hear critics say why we need exclusive contracts in grappling, even when those contracts prevent athletes from doing CJI. They claim the UFC’s new BJJ event will professionalize the sport. I’m here to tell you that’s impossible.
UFC BJJ claims they want to offer 10-12 cards per year, offer drug testing, and professionalize the sport. Quick math says that ain’t gonna happen.
UFC BJJ 2 had 8 matches. So did UFC BJJ 1. An 8 match card has 16 athletes on it.
If we assume all 12 UFC BJJ cards will have 8 matches that means there are literally only 192 paychecks per year for all of their athletes.
Let’s do more a little more quick math.
In 2024 ADCC has 5 mens brackets with 16 athletes each and 3 women’s brackets with 8 athletes each. That’s 104 athletes.
If UFC BJJ signed every ADCC athlete they literally wouldn’t be able to give all of them more than one match.
How can UFC BJJ professionalize a sport when they can’t even keep their roster active enough to pay their bills?
A bunch of athletes are already signing UFC contracts. Some of them will be exciting. They’ll be the stars that get regular matches. They’re going to make a lot of money and they’ll be the poster children for UFC BJJ success.
Every one else who is not a UFC BJJ star will get one match and get cut. Or, they’ll get one match and get frozen in limbo thanks to their contract that prevents them from taking matches outside of UFC BJJ. Then they’ll lose a year from their career. Maybe two. Maybe they’ll miss their prime and never make enough money to be financially successful let alone live a meaningful life.
I want the UFC to promote BJJ. I literally get paid to teach jiujitsu. More competitions with more money means more people paying me to teach. But I also want the UFC to preserve their athletes’ liberties so they can do what they were put on this Earth to do; fight for a living. That won’t happen if they have to fight the UFC’s legal team.
The UFC’s lawyers know that the pen is mightier than the sword. Unfortunately the opposition doesn’t understand they’re completely unarmed.
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