Combat Jiu-Jitsu Fight Night Comes to UFC Fight Pass
The second incarnation of a Combat Jiu-Jitsu event hosted by Eddie Bravo struck a deal with UFC Fight Pass. Combat Jiu-Jitsu Fight Night features a 4-man tournament involving Fabricio Werdum, Gordon Ryan, Josh Barnett, and Rustam Chsiev. The first round will consist of Werdum/Ryan and Barnett/Chsiev. It will take place on Saturday, February 23, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.
EDIT: On January 14, 2019, UFC Fight Pass (@UFCFightPass) confirmed my report on the leaks insofar as them live-streaming the event, but their tweet indicated that the date would be Friday, February 22, 2019 which was the original date promoted by Eddie Bravo. Thank you for following along with this coverage. I can’t wait for this event!
First posted by Rustam Chsiev on IG:
(https://t.co/KnufjN7efu)
The INCREDIBLE #CJJFN will be LIVE exclusively on #UFCFIGHTPASSSaturday, February 23, 2019 pic.twitter.com/wy0hO7471k
— Volkman (@volkstyles) January 7, 2019
How We Got Here: Original Plans on November 20, 2018
On November 20, 2018, Eddie Bravo began promoting an event titled ‘Combat Jiu-Jitsu Fight Night’ on his Instagram pages. He used the EBI Official Page (@ebiofficial), a new page for the Combat Jiu-Jitsu promotion (@combatjiujitsufn), and his person page (@eddiebravo10p). The original promotional materials only remain on his personal page. I’ll explain why I believe they were taken down on the other pages later.
The original event was planned for February 22, 2019, in Monterrey, Mexico and featured a ‘4-man tournament for the CJJ FN Championship’ involving Fabricio Werdum vs. Gordon Ryan, Vinny Magalhaes, and a TBA fourth participant.
More Event Details Emerge: More Tournaments
On November 22, Eddie Bravo announced more information for the CJJ FN: two additional tournaments would take place. These tournaments would be an 8-man 135lb bracket and a massive 16-man absolute bracket.
Real Promotion and Prices
On December 23, Eddie Bravo posted the prices of tickets for the event and began promoting social media posts advertising the event on Facebook. This included three tiers of prices. It was planned as a PPV streamed on inchbyinch.tv.
A couple of participants for the 135lb tournament were announced. Unfortunately, those announcements were taken down and lost.
Notable Events: PFL11, UFC Fight Pass Announcements, & Ant Evans’ Tweet
A couple of tangential events are worth noting as the CJJFN/UFC Fight Pass news comes out.
First, Vinny Magalhaes is no longer competing. This question of a missing person is easily speculated: Vinny was beaten by TKO at the PFL 11. Where he fought in the LHW Finals against Sean O’Connell. Magalhaes’ departure from Combat Jiu-Jitsu Fight Night makes sense.
Second, UFC Fight Pass started making a wave of announcements regarding live content in 2019 on December 29. The social media account shared organizations streaming live content in the coming year. During this, the Combat Jiu-Jitsu Worlds logo appeared on the promotional images posted by UFC Fight Pass.
While CJJ Worlds did stream on UFC Fight Pass previously, it was only once on November 12, 2017. The prelims were exclusive to UFC Fight Pass while the main card was on PPV via UFC.TV and inchbyinch.tv. Thus, seeing this logo on fresh promotional material for 2019 raised some eyebrows.
Finally, on January 4, 2019, Ant Evans, Senior Director, editorial & content acquisition for UFC Fight Pass, tweeted this:
Christmas is not over yet for @UFCFightPass subscribers. We’ve saved a couple of massive tickets items to announce in the next 10days or so. I’m excited to see reaction
It seemed all someone had to do was start putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
UFC Fight Pass Deal News Leak
My theory, on the night of Sunday, January 6, 2019, the news of the live, exclusive streaming deal leaked to Instagram by the @EBIOfficial IG account.
Allegedly, this post came by accident. Thusly, it was subsequently removed. Time of the posting is unknown, but Rustam Chsiev reposted the Instagram post at 8:27 PM EST.
Further confirming the news, Blanca Garcia (@blanca_marisa_garcia) independently posted the news with an identical caption at 9:21 PM EST. Garcia is the official photographer for EBI.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsUP36VADS5/
All older promotional posts for Combat Jiu-Jitsu Fight Night are no longer in existence. Even the previously used IG account @combatjiujitsufn is barren.
My theory: a broadcast deal with UFC Fight Pass restructured the streaming details and thusly previous promotional posts were of no use in the lead up to an announcement. Unfortunately, the news leaked early.
Stay tuned for more news for this event! As always follow me @volkstyles, to stay up to date with UFC Fight Pass news!
