Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
What Is Going On At CJI 2?!
The second annual Craig Jones Invitational is officially on. There is lots of speculation as to who will be on what team, which athletes will need to make their pick, and how the wild card spot will throw a wrench in the whole thing. We breakdown the quintet style event and specifically talk about all of the options team Austrailasia has and what coach Lachlan Giles might have cooked up.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. Excitement spreads across the world as news of CJI 2 spreads. We have some information about Team Australia. Joey and I get into a discussion about what Team Australia for CJI 2 looks like and the exciting opportunities and matchups it presents. We unpack the contenders at heavyweight and super heavyweight. We also get into existing champions who will make a reappearance at CGI2. And then, last but not least, we get into the 66 kilo wildcard ticket. Who will it be? Five huge wildcards You're about to find out. Let's get in the episode now. Also, while we're on that ticket of excitement, I want you to get excited. Get that finger and click, click, click the subscribe and like button. It does a lot to help us and we appreciate it. Shoo Better. Listen very carefully.
Speaker 2:A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Essentially, at this point the fight is over.
Speaker 1:So you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready. I'm so hyped. Cji 2, Team Australia. Lachlan Giles is the nominated coach and who is going to be on that team? I was losing sleep over this, Joe. I was like turning in like sweats about how excited I was to see because there is a mystery person coming into Team Australia and we've got to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that we know who two of the competitors are. We do, and we've got to talk about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah so that we know who two of the competitors are. We do so at 77 or 76,. We've got Levi Jones-Leary, of course, the almost million-dollar man who are definitely coming in, and then Lucas Kennard at 88. Very nice, but we're not going to go to the final draw card, which is the Mystery 66. We're going to get to that at the end. We're going to talk to that at the end. We're going to talk under 99, over 99.
Speaker 2:Before we go deep on this team, can we just give an overview of what's going on with CJR2? Because I'm guessing some of the listeners aren't up on it.
Speaker 1:Well, it's teams in a quintet style event. New Wave is in B team.
Speaker 2:10th Planet there is, there is some team atos has a team atos will have a team for sure.
Speaker 1:Obviously you know rotolo's in there, plus big kind of duarte, uh. But then you know europe is posting it like he's putting together teams where potentially one gym might not be strong enough, but you take some all-stars from that area and you put together a team. It's crazy and what's interesting to me is who will claim who Like, for example, there's a lot of cross-training these days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you talk about a guy like Owen Jones. He's training at Los Banditos, but he's always training at B-Team. Does B-Team want him for 66? Or do Los Banditos or the European you know collective get him? Yeah, and so it's, yeah, it's. It is interesting, it's. It's one of those things that having a team's event I think brings more people, because you might only follow one jujitsu person that you love and if they're not in the tournament you're like, no, I don't care. But the team's event means, oh shit, they're in it and oh, they're in it. I kind of like them.
Speaker 1:And so you can be more bought in, yeah, and, and it creates these style matchups, which I think is very exciting.
Speaker 2:And the format's very exciting is my favorite, like jujitsu competition to watch, yeah, favorite grappling comp, rather. So yeah, the fact that they're copying the format for this next CGI is going to be sick.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's going to be ridiculous. And I mean when it comes to the Australian lineup, I think, when you're looking at 99, I actually spoke with Kaya Rudolph the other day Kaya's our boy. I believe Kaya has the greatest chance under 99, but there's some tough humans in there. So also the claiming of people. Declan moody, even though he, you know he's australian, I think you know he qualified for adcc over in the uk. Yeah, um, I think he's got a uk passport too, doesn't he does? He's got it. He's got that double passport, daddy, but he's B-team. He's B-team. And I'm not sure who they post at 99, because I think High Sum it was an idea of like High Sum versus Declan for 99, but it seems like High Sum might not be training at B-team as much now.
Speaker 1:I think he's over in the UAE somewhere potentially, and so, yeah, it's interesting because there's a bunch of Aussies who train at the B team and it's like who ends up getting selected?
Speaker 2:It's almost like the Whistler of Texas.
Speaker 1:All the fucking Aussies do a season there. They're all a show.
Speaker 2:Ah, mate, you haven't been traveling if you haven't done a season at b-team it's all it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's just one of those things that people it's a it's a good vibe, so people like to visit fucking fun good times yeah wish that shit was around when I was in my 20s. Oh, like, do you?
Speaker 2:know just when you were doing more travel for jujitsu.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know just would have been sick like, yeah, when you look at like what uh like say, bobby sandu will go and the outside of like the comedy and the barbecues, fireworks, just having a good time in texas, yeah, it's pretty cool. But um, I I think that ben hodgkinson is going to make a reappearance for under 99, right, and I think that that guy is a real threat and people haven't seen him because he's been in Mexico and recently spied in some kind of highlight footage of uh in the background at B team. I think Hodge is keeping himself in shape. Yeah, I think he's a real contender. And then I mean there's a. There's so many people who could say about yeah.
Speaker 1:Man, he's a wild card. I think his recent match against Isaac. Michel. He looked good, he looked threatening and he's a wild man. I think the unpredictable nature of Seb means he's a chance for sure. And then I mean I want to. I think that there is many great Aussies who don't always show up, who could pop out, you know, on the day.
Speaker 2:Let's look at these other guys that fuck. Sorry, I got a sore neck. If you see me tweak a little bit on this episode, it's because I got a jacked up neck.
Speaker 1:Is it Dan Manchild? Dan Manchild, I believe, would be over 99.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right believe would be over 99. Yeah, so you could see a really good match between him and josh saunders, which I I believe has happened before and I think you know. Obviously josh got the better of that. But dan has been doing a lot, of, a lot of training and been doing really well, and he recently won a comp against very tough unit from europe. Uh, who's been cleaning up nogi scene over there I've forgotten his name, but he was able to uh beat him oh wow, quite convincingly, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:He got the tap you would imagine, uh, harry kimura I think harry got a warm up, kimura a little bit seeing the comp coming up I think so, but you, you know who else is just like, honestly the biggest sleeper agent in the super heavyweight category? Who? Tito, jean-claude, tito, baby, the milkman Baby. I think you can see Tito pop out if he's had some good training. Fuck, I would love to see him get the spot. He's like one of the only people who I've seen throw Josh Saunders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, convincingly. Yeah, toss him once and then Josh, kind of beat him up, didn't he?
Speaker 1:Well, the thing was that he landed in that like scarf hold, kind of Kez Gatami, and then the ref reset them standing. You're like, bro, it's the ADCC, like let him go to work, let the man cook, and you know people don't talk about that enough like he had josh in a bad spot yeah right, and it just got, and he just gives no fucks. I think this is like one of the x factors about a guy like tito, also like seb. They they train at crapping education. Yeah, they just have that.
Speaker 1:Devil may care, yeah they don't give a shit they're just like fuck this, fuck you, let's bang. And they're having a good time while they're doing it, which I think is a very enjoyable thing to watch. So I think I don't know how lucky he's going to handle the live stream on the kind of trials for it, but it's going to be mad.
Speaker 2:It's out of absolute, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I remember seeing Tito compete at, I think, purple Belt in one of the first subversions, yeah, and he was going against a he might've even been a blue belt and he was competing against the brown belt, I think. And yeah, I didn't know anything about him, but you only had to watch him for a couple of minutes and you're like man, this guy loves a scrap, like. He looks like the kind of guy and I don't know if he's into this, but he looks like he's the kind of dude that just loves having a street fight.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:He just had a smile on his face the whole time and he was able to make the match. He was able to pull it out of like a real technical exchange and just make it kind of nasty and sinister and as a spectator I'm all for that shit.
Speaker 1:And look, I forgot to mention at 99, even though I think this guy he's a natural 77, but he does so well at heavier weight categories. Bob Frias from One Purpose BJJ, that is another guy who loves to scrap.
Speaker 2:He represented at ADCC two ago.
Speaker 1:That is another guy who loves to scrap.
Speaker 2:Represented at ADCC yeah Two ago, Bro and he.
Speaker 1:He's always there in like top three and in the Gi does so well. I think he won the I don't know if it was Masters 1, forgive me, Bob, I've forgotten but he beat some high level Hanado Cardoza. He beat another top level like ex-Atos guy at Abu Dhabi Pro. Now, obviously that's Guy, but he throws down no Guy as well, yeah, and he's just incredibly hard to beat as a competitor. But I think we're leaving someone out here. We're talking about Big Dangerous, who trains at Atos, mainly known for his gi accolades. He escapes me. He had a fucking amazing match against Josh Saunders, which he, I believe.
Speaker 2:Aussie guy. Yeah, atos here in.
Speaker 1:Australia. No, no, no, he trains at Atos. Oh Nico Majilic, oh Majilic, the magic man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know Nico, but my impression of him is that he just like lays around on the couch and shit, and then he gets the call up. It's like yeah, we've got this comp and he's like I'll do it, and then just comes and wins. No, he's poor.
Speaker 1:I know he's poor.
Speaker 2:He's poor but you know he has. He has like a nonchalantness to his approach he does and who? I think in a no game I beat Josh at a grappling industries which was pretty fucking huge, and he looked some time ago.
Speaker 1:He looks very threatening. Yeah, Like he. He was pushing the pace from a no key guard position. Yeah, and and and looking like threatening and and Josh not looking as effective. In the passing, Now it was a little while ago, right, Like, yeah, obviously.
Speaker 2:Josh has gotten better.
Speaker 1:Nico's gotten a lot better. But like you, you're like I think Nico Majelic is the most underrated heavyweight in Australia, even though obviously Brown Belt double world's gold you know like. But he's had injuries right, so he he's had a lot of success. And then at Black Belt he's had injuries, so we haven't seen him as much and he's very much been focused in the gi yeah, but I think he's a huge threat at 120 kilos yeah, I'd agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he'd be, he'd be, he'd be at 120.
Speaker 1:You'd say um, he like he'd be like a 110, but yeah, but he's not in the 99, no, not at all and uh that's lucky, because I was thinking about giving the 99 a run yeah, you know, oh, joe, I look, joe, I think give, give the young guys a chance. Yeah, fair, they've got to have their time I know you want to be fit.
Speaker 2:I know you want to be stronger, I know you want to feel it on the mats. But when you go to the gym it's a little bit confusing. You don't know what to do. This is exactly why we built the bulletproof for bj training app Simple programs designed by JT and myself to help you perform at your best on the mats while only needing to spend two days in the gym per week. And the best part is you don't even need to go to a gym. You can do it at home. You can take a two-week free trial of the app right now. Go to the app store, download Bulletproof forjj and get started for free. And the best part is, if you continue on to the subscription and for whatever reason, you don't like it, we offer a 100 money back guarantee. Go to the app store, get the app and we'll see you on the inside. Um, I did. I would be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind. Like jt should go in the 99 strong.
Speaker 1:Not at all, not at all. I, I would, I would, I would definitely. Uh, I wouldn't turn down a super fight, you know, against you know someone who I didn't, you know you know love so much. Right you gotta. Yeah, I would have to be the right match.
Speaker 1:I'm not I'm not in it for the money. It's just gotta be the right match, it's gotta feel right for me to bring the right intensity. No, I, I. I think the thing that excites me about jujitsu is I'm not. I used to be too emotionally bought in as to who wins. Like I had teammates, I also was like, oh, I could beat that guy, that guy doesn't deserve to win. There's all this ego bullshit you tell yourself in the head. But what's great, I think, is I just love the fact that australia is going to have a team, but it's not just australia, it's asia. The fact that Australia is going to have a team, but it's not just Australia, it's Asia as well. And this is where we got to talk about Oceania. People can just pop out. There was a-.
Speaker 2:Because Lockie's team is going to be open to the Oceania region. It's Oceania and Asia, okay.
Speaker 1:So who's representing Japan? So who's representing Japan? Like are we getting some Japanese? Like wrestler MMA nightmare pops out and just goes oh I'm 120 kilos, I can bang. You're like. I never thought of this guy.
Speaker 2:It's funny. You imagine there probably won't be a lot of representation right from like Japan, but like we were talking about quintet earlier.
Speaker 2:Yes, the you imagine there probably won't be a lot of representation right from like japan, but I when I like we've talked about quintet earlier yes the quintet events that have been all japanese teams. You see some fucking unbelievable talent, wildness, yeah. And you see these people that you've never seen before, right, because they they just compete in japan. Yeah, and you know they don't speak english so they're not marketed, yeah, to the west.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not doing the social media.
Speaker 2:And the fucking like the uniqueness of the grappling, it's really something special.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful. Yeah, and look, this is where it might be a good segue to talk about the 66 wildcard.
Speaker 2:So what's that? So wildcard means he's just keeping that open for now. Yeah, he's just keeping that open for now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's just going to. It's not, he's going to choose somebody Right Now. Obviously people got to put their names forward. This is all hush hush, but this is what's been keeping me fucking awake at night, joe. Oh wow, like I had a fucking fever dream, like I didn't barely sleep, if I'm. I was fucking playing out this scenario in my mind a million different ways, like fucking old mate, fucking Dr Strange. Million different futures. Who could it be?
Speaker 1:Let's talk about Asia, because I want to talk about Daiki Yonekura, who is from Team Alley Own, who has just been fucking shit up and it is a nogi nightmare. Oh, right on, bro, I you know it's only through kind of paying attention to team aleone and and kaya and pj barch and guys going on there, and then he's there, you know, kind of as an alternate with Owen Jones. His leg lock game's awesome. Oh, really, he's just unapologetically like tough and like scrap and super mean. He's a contender at 66. Daycare. Yeah, bro, I could not have seen this cat Dude, you've got to go check him out. Like yeah, I mean I I feel dumb that I wasn't switched onto him sooner, but yeah, immaculate record, definitely like podium guy speaking of, um, speaking of a regga rock, um, do you think that the wine jps might be willing to put his life?
Speaker 2:on the line and drop 25% of his body mass. Maybe stop eating all the protein for a little while. Maybe back off on the creatine and the acai Get back down, was it?
Speaker 1:66 he did at that first 80s. Oh my God, he looked so unwell.
Speaker 2:Bro, you look at him, he's a fucking unit.
Speaker 1:Now, bro, he's almost heavier than you and I walking around. Combined, combined, we could be each of his deltoids, the delts on Jeremy Paul Skinner are ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it crossed JPS's mind. He's like, oh, it's a good shot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like does the math? Yeah, does the math on what it would take how much weight can you lose intermittent fasting?
Speaker 1:If I just sat in a wheelchair yeah, if I just sat in a wheelchair, just atrophied his legs, he'd be fine. I'm actually going to say, well, ethan Thomas from Sydney West Martial Arts, who got selected, didn't have the performance he necessarily wanted at the ADCC, but Ethan has been, you know, in there a long time. You know ultra tough MMA fighter as well, amazing wrestler, like national champion wrestler in Australia, yeah, and represented Australia before. He's very strong for that weight, I think, ethan Daikei. I'm going to actually say right now something which is going to be a little bit left of center oh, wow, I don't know how it fits in. It may just be pure fantasy. Yeah, alex Volkanovski, alex Volkanovski at 66 kilos representing Australia.
Speaker 1:Holy fucking shit. The Volk, the Volk, because the Volk. His grappling coach is Craig Jones. Yep, and if Craig's trying to pull strings to get big names, he is Australian. Now, it's not that the Volk is the submission machine, but he's so hard to submit.
Speaker 2:Do you know where motherfuckers are? But actually I mean, I fucking love this, I love this, but you need finishers, don't you? Yeah, because if you don't finish you're out, yeah.
Speaker 1:But I still feel that Volk like Could be the guy. Volk at 66 is a fucking nightmare. He's a fucking nightmare Like. And what kudos and attention does that bring to CJI?
Speaker 2:That brings huge amount of eyes to the game Massive, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Putting it out there, folks just think about it first. Now there's, there's two other in my opinion. I feel sorry for those who didn't stick around to the end of this right, we're getting there because with the crescendo, it's building the opera oh, it's fucking building. Because there is absolutely a fucking red hot flamethrower of a contender who no one's thinking about. Who is, I believe, eligible now the eligibility could be wrong. I haven't cleared this with Lachlan. I'm going to talk to him about it.
Speaker 2:This might be, hence the wild card.
Speaker 1:The wild card.
Speaker 2:Craig's like we need Volk in there and Lachy's like we got to do it by the book man and he's like no, no, no, Craig's, like you do.
Speaker 1:What the fuck I say?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I'm just Test the heavier guys.
Speaker 1:So there is someone who lives in Australia who's won more world championships than anyone. Well, you got another one. Yeah, I've got two to go. We're right on the cliff, people. Okay.
Speaker 2:So I want you to be able to guess no no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:The best is going to be last Holy fuck. Here we fucking go, folks. Can you guess? It Won more world champions than anyone else. He lives in Australia. Who is this guy?
Speaker 2:More world championships than anyone else.
Speaker 1:Taliesin Soares, motherfucker, taliesin Soares Of course Taliesin, the academy.
Speaker 1:Just signed to one championship for grappling has he? Yeah, he always cuts to 55. You notice he shaved his head. He needed that to 55. He knows he shaved his head. He needed that weight. He got a big bobble head. Shout out respect, taliesin, I love you. But he does. He's got that Lego man head. He cuts to 55, but really he walks around at 62 or more, right Taliesin, at 66 in the Nogi. I don't believe he has an australian passport, but for sure he has a pr. Like he lives here. He has a business year, you know, like he could qualify for 66 no-gi for australia he'd be a great if he didn't get snapped up if there was a team aoj, there could be, because also you know what you're going to see.
Speaker 1:You're going to see hafa mendez come out of fucking retirement for aoj. Oh yeah they got gutenberg perera. He just fucking won, uh, the absolute for AOJ. Oh yeah, you reckon they got Gutenberg Pereira. He just fucking won the absolute for Pan Ams. Yeah, like they've got a team of killers at AOJ and they would love to come in and fucking smash Team Atos, like that's the rivalry. San Diego fucking the beef Raj match California beef. Yeah, if. Taliesin doesn't get pulled in if he doesn't get pulled in.
Speaker 2:How interesting. I wasn't even thinking of him, because he's traditionally a gay guy. He's a gay guy, but he's also immaculate. He just wins all the time.
Speaker 1:Under 55. He's the current guy. Wow, but I have one more.
Speaker 2:Holy shit the last. I don't see how I can get any better from here Right Look, Holy shit the last I don't see how it can get any better from here.
Speaker 1:Right? Look, I think this is the most unlikely. When I said Volk, you thought I was losing my fucking mind, right? But this is where it gets even more unlikely, because of the nature of Lachlan Giles being a coach. He is too objective, he's too partial, he's too nice, he's too good.
Speaker 2:But could.
Speaker 1:Lachlan Giles make 66 kilos.
Speaker 2:I say yes, he fucking could.
Speaker 1:Could he throw himself in? Lachlan Giles, a hundred percent, can make 66 kilos. He's the skinniest he's ever fucking been like. If you look at footage of him he's looking trimmer. Yeah, lockie is a typically like a 77 80 kilo guy. Like get lighter for 72. I believe Lachlan Giles could complete team Australia at 66 and it would be a fucking nightmare for anyone. You see all these people doing this backside 50, 50 K guard. Who fucking built and sold that game? Probably the meow brothers, but the one who sold it the best, lachlaniles. Yeah, that's, I'm gonna talk to him about it.
Speaker 2:I I think he'll be in heavy denial and he probably wouldn't want to put himself forward it would seem unfair, yeah, but bro come on, I mean, yeah, do you tend to think that once he stopped competing he's like that's? It, he's done yeah, but I mean he'd still be fucking great such a crowd favorite yeah wow, how about that?
Speaker 1:team australia.
Speaker 2:I think it's one of the more exciting teams because I think no one's counting on team australia to come through and and destroy no against the, the mega teams like aoj or if they have one, but like our toss, like fucking b team, these planet teams that are branded and united, that you know. You're like, oh yeah, how's it? How's it kind of cobbled together group gonna have a chance against them.
Speaker 1:But think this the competition is named after craig jones. You know where did he come from, I?
Speaker 2:mean that's the other point that lockheed would have his work cut out for him coaching the team, wouldn't he?
Speaker 1:but he wouldn't.
Speaker 2:He like he's coaching is like do do that, do the thing yeah, good, no, but that coaching has been done in the fucking months.
Speaker 1:But he, but he's on the floor. The thing about locky, which is awesome as a coach he's on the floor doing it with you and he's breaking down for you.
Speaker 1:He's creating the problems. He's creating the specific situations like that's where locky is. I believe, at his strongest is his ability to analyze, break it down and then translate it into training, right? No, I don't think too many people do that much better than lock on jiles. I think locky on the corner, in your corner, is not great. He's too softly spoken. Yeah, it's good. No, no, levi, be relax, levi. Oh, fuck. I think more people at CJI heard me yelling out Levi than anyone heard Lachlan calling out right. But I believe that because of Lachlan's not only his fan appeal like he's just one of the most beloved coaches ever and competitors, how good a dude he is for real and how humble he is but also his ability to help great grapplers become greater still. I think Team Australia is a fucking threat, cji2, fucking, keep your head on. A swivel it's coming.
Speaker 2:Big talk. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:There it is, folks.
