Craig Jones never misses a chance to turn chaos into comedy. Just days after losing his blockbuster showdown with Olympic wrestling star Gable Steveson, the Australian jiu-jitsu ace flipped the script. How?  By donning a bald cap, grabbing a whiteboard, and doing his best impression of UFC boss Dana White.

The skit wasn’t subtle. Standing in jeans and a black T-shirt, Jones mocked the UFC CEO’s iconic fight announcement videos, even giving himself a new nickname. But behind the laughter, a storm of frustration brewed. Was the cancellation of CJI 2’s (Craig Jones Invitational) main event just bad luck, or was there something bigger at play?

Craig Jones channels inner Dana White in new skit

In a recent video shared on Instagram, Jones began by stating, “What’s up everybody, Beta White here from the wh*re room. Guys, we are coming to you live from Las Vegas, and we have a bad*** card at the half-sold-out, Thomas and Mack Event Center. And we had a bada** main event, so forget about that.”

He then rolled out the first-round bracket for CJI 2 with, “Guys, this is our first matchup I’m releasing of the team brackets here. We have Team Australia with Lachlan Giles, Fabricio Andre, Kenta Iwamoto, Lucas Kaynard, Belal Something, and Declan Moody. We have 10th Planet here with Eddie Bravo, Geo Martinez, Alan Sanchez, PJ Barch, Ryan Aitken, and Kyle Boehm.”

The announcement was meant to mask disappointment. Craig Jones himself was supposed to headline CJI 2 against Steveson in a BJJ vs. wrestling super-fight. Days before the August 30-31 event, it all unraveled. Steveson pulled out with a toe injury, and the Australian grappler wasted no time in firing a shot by quoting the legendary Dan Gable and wrote on social media, ‘Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy…except a hangnail”

As such, the timing raised eyebrows. Just 12 days after skipping CJI 2, Steveson will make his MMA debut with LFA, a feeder promotion closely tied to the UFC. CJI commentator Alex Wendling pushed the envelope further, suggesting that UFC meddling might be behind Stevenson’s sudden switch as he shared, “It’s a sad thing when a lad can’t keep his word, very interesting timing to get an MMA offer from recent ‘playful rival’ UFC’s feeder promotion.”

This isn’t the first time UFC and Dana White have loomed over Jones’ events. Their grappling offshoot, UFC BJJ, recently featured rules and a pit setup that looked suspiciously like CJI’s. Craig Jones has also accused the UFC of trying to rope him into an exclusive contract, an offer he says he turned down flat.

So, was this just Steveson making a business move, or a calculated UFC play to weaken a rising competitor? Because Craig Jones’s long-time rival has also made a surprising statement about the fallout!

Gordon Ryan shouts out “baller move” by the UFC and Dana White in a pointed jab at Craig Jones

Enter Gordon Ryan. The multiple-time world champion didn’t just weigh in; he swung a hammer. In a recent post on Instagram, after news emerged of Gable Steveson’s withdrawal, Ryan framed it as direct retaliation for Jones’ constant criticism of the promotion’s BJJ contracts.

His tone was unmistakable as he wrote, “Gable pulling out of the main event of CJI 2 and then fighting less than 2 weeks later on UFC Fight Pass is such a baller move by UFC, who has been attacked non stop of unknown reasons by (Craig Jones).”

Ryan didn’t stop there. He zeroed in on what he believed was a critical oversight by Jones: contract details. According to him, “I bet (Craig Jones) never put a pull out clause in there for Gable, which would penalize him for pulling out. I’m sure there wasn’t, Otherwise, Gable wouldn’t have pulled out. I’m sure gable read thoroughly through the contract before signing thanks to the advocacy about this matter from (Craig Jones).”

The implication? That Craig Jones had left the door wide open for exactly this kind of maneuver.  For Ryan, the grudge goes back years. Once teammates, the two have since become bitter rivals. The irony, of course, is that Gordon Ryan himself has quietly stepped away from competition, with reports pointing to serious health issues as the reason.

Yet his words still carry weight in the grappling world. His comments didn’t just highlight Jones’ struggles; they reinforced the sense that UFC may have played a role in CJI 2’s collapse. So while the Aussie grappler may laugh in a bald cap, the fallout is no joke.

His main event vanished, his rival gloated, and the UFC’s shadow looms larger than ever over the grappling scene. Was Steveson’s exit a coincidence or a carefully timed play? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!