ADCC could go back to Brazil in 2028, and Mo Jassim wants Craig Jones in
A year after Craig Jones went to war with ADCC, former head organizer Mo Jassim wants him to help bring the 2028 ADCC World Championship to Brazil for the event's 30th anniversary. Nothing has been announced.
Mo Jassim and Craig Jones over Rio. Photo illustration.
Mo Jassim wants to take ADCC back to Brazil. And he wants Craig Jones to help him do it. Yes, the same Craig Jones who went to war with ADCC in 2024, before the two rivals made peace.
The former ADCC head organizer laid out the pitch on a recent livestream: bring the 2028 ADCC World Championship to Brazil for the event's 30th anniversary, with Mo running the organization and Craig Jones handling promotion. Craig's own account co-signed the clip that spread it. Nothing is official.
What Mo Jassim actually said
Mo did the talking. "If I could pick for the next one, any location to be Brazil," he said on the stream. "It's time. The last time ADCC did Brazil is 2015." Then the name-check: "So I think it is time, Mr. Jones." And the hook: "that's going to be the 30th anniversary."
The clip lands on a "Yeah, why not?" The two accounts left who says it to you.
The rest comes from the post itself, so read it as the post's framing. Craig asked Mo to confirm a 2028 collaboration, Mo sounded enthusiastic, and Mo suggested he would run the organization while Craig focused on the promotion. That is a partnership pitch out loud, in public, from the two people who spent 2024 at war.
Why Brazil, and why 2028
The math checks out. ADCC started in Abu Dhabi in 1998 and runs every two years, so 2028 is the 30-year mark. Mo's Brazil date checks out too. The championship has landed in Brazil twice, São Paulo in 2003 and São Paulo again in 2015, and 2015 is the last time it did, per the event's edition history.
Here is the part that makes 2028 the only real target: the 2026 Worlds are already locked in. ADCC 2026 runs September 12 and 13 at the TAURON Arena in Kraków, the first time Poland has hosted, with the venue and dates confirmed. So the next open slot after Poland is 2028. That is exactly the anniversary Mo is eyeing, and exactly the year he floated for Brazil.
Mo Jassim and Craig Jones went from war to this
A year ago this pitch sounded impossible.
In 2024, Craig Jones ran the first Craig Jones Invitational the same weekend and the same city as the ADCC World Championship, then poached stars with show money that dwarfed ADCC's purses. The feud was loud and personal. That October, Mo Jassim stepped down as ADCC head organizer, the only man to have run three ADCC Worlds. Craig implied on camera that Mo was fired.
Then it flipped. In May 2025, Craig said the "brothership is on again" with Mo, and confirmed CJI would stop going head to head with ADCC. The two rivals became allies. This livestream is what that alliance sounds like a year later: Mo talking up a Brazil homecoming and putting Craig's name on it.
One guardrail on all of it. Mo Jassim does not run ADCC anymore, and he never owned it. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed founded ADCC in 1998 and remains the man at the top. So this is Mo Jassim's wish, said on a stream, not ADCC's plan. Treat it as a pitch until an announcement says otherwise.
What it means if you train
Craig Jones has been the busiest man in grappling this summer. We covered his other big move, B-Team's new home in a Tulum mega-resort. Now he is floating a hand in ADCC too.
You do not need a plane ticket to Brazil to roll the no-gi style the ADCC crowd made famous. Find an open mat near you, or browse the gym directory and go test the game everyone is arguing about.