Craig Jones is moving B-Team into Zamaya, a Tulum mega-resort
The rebooted B-Team Jiu Jitsu has a home: Zamaya, a 48-suite fitness resort in the Mexican jungle. The resort confirmed to Open Mat Locator that doors open September 17, drop-ins included.
Craig Jones goes full Tulum. AI illustration.
Craig Jones found B-Team a new home. It's a resort in the Mexican jungle.
The reveal came Wednesday in a reel on his Instagram, co-signed by the B-Team, Craig Jones Invitational, and Zamaya accounts. Drone footage sweeps over a half-built campus in the trees outside Tulum. One title card: "Zamaya x The B-Team Jiu Jitsu." The caption is a single Mexican flag.
Zamaya filled in the details for us a day later. The resort officially opens September 17, the team confirmed to Open Mat Locator by email, and the B-Team academy will take drop-ins, weekly passes, and monthly passes. Training there requires zero nights in a suite.
BJJ media spent the past week guessing where the rebooted B-Team would land. Austin again? Puerto Rico? Thailand? The answer is Tulum, on Mexico's Caribbean coast.
What is Zamaya?
Zamaya is a fitness resort under construction in the jungle outside Tulum. 48 hotel suites. 48 villas. The facility map lists a main training pavilion with an observation deck above the tree line, a running track around the grounds, a spa and recovery block, and a dedicated Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym beside the boxing and Muay Thai pavilions.
Dave Foran, a former professional rugby player, founded the project. Construction is in its final stretch ahead of the September 17 opening, and Jones spent announcement day posting stories from the bare concrete of the future academy floor. Arms out. Caption: "Join my cult."
Zamaya spent the week stacking names, too. One day before the B-Team reel, the resort announced ten-time CrossFit Games athlete Khan Porter as its head of hybrid training.
Craig Jones retired a year ago. Sort of.
Last July, Jones announced his retirement from competition and the end of B-Team ahead of CJI 2 in Las Vegas. This May, he confirmed CJI 3 was cancelled and told interviewers the second event "broke even." On June 24, BJJEE reported B-Team would return with a brand-new headquarters academy in an undisclosed location. The speculation started immediately. A week later, the reel answered it.
A destination campus fits everything Jones built his audience on: the travel vlogs, the camps, the allergy to running a standard academy on a standard schedule.
One more detail for the board: the Craig Jones Invitational account co-authored the announcement. CJI stalled as a live event this spring. A permanent venue with fight rings, suites, and a seminar room changes that math. We asked Zamaya directly whether the fight pavilion will host live events. Their answer: "Yes, without giving too much away, we are exploring some really interesting events in the huge main pavilion." The resort says more in-depth content about the partnership is coming soon. We'll report it when it lands.
What it means if you train
Destination training is already one of the strongest currents in jiu-jitsu, and this is the biggest name in the sport attaching himself to a purpose-built version of it. A B-Team campus inside a resort turns a beach week into a training camp. Fly in. Stay on site. Roll two or three times a day with one of the most recognizable rooms in no-gi, then walk to the recovery block.
And per Zamaya, you can skip the resort part entirely: drop in for a session, or grab a weekly or monthly pass while you're in Tulum.
Planning a trip with a gi in the bag? Check the gym directory before you fly, or find an open mat wherever you land. Zamaya has already given us the green light to list the academy in the directory when it opens September 17.
Update, July 3: B-Team posted a full construction tour of the academy. Founder Dave Foran puts the resort at 48 villas on camera, corrected above from the 24 we first reported. Here's what the tour showed.