Craig Jones Set to Defend Polaris Title Against Davi Ramos

Craig Jones will soon return to the Polaris mat. On October 9, Jones will defend his Polaris title when he squares off with ADCC champion and UFC veteran Davi Ramos. Jones has not competed at Polaris since a May 2019 title defending win over Matheus Lutes.

A longtime black belt competitor, Davi Ramos’ biggest career accomplishment is a 2015 ADCC world championship run in which he submitted Gilbert Burns and Leandro Lo. Ramos has continued a relatively active jiu-jitsu competition schedule since then, despite also fighting in seven UFC bouts since 2017. He most recently competed in August at Fight To Win 180, losing in the literal last second to Dante Leon, extending his current losing skid to four matches.

Formerly of the Danaher Death Squad, Craig Jones is now the leader of B-Team Jiu-Jitsu in Austin, TX. An ADCC silver medalist and two-weight Polaris champion, he is widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound no-gi grapplers in the world today. He has looked nothing short of dominant in competition so far this year, winning three Who’s Number One matches against Ronaldo Junior, Luiz Panza, and Tye Ruotolo.

Jones will certainly be the favorite in this match-up, and for good reason. His skill-set works perfectly well for the Polaris submission-only format, and he has been the much more active and successful competitor lately. But Ramos shouldn’t be easily counted out; he is incredibly athletic and supremely difficult to submit — his last submission loss came in 2013.

How to watch: Polaris 17 takes place on Saturday, October 9 and will air live on UFC Fightpass (subscription required).

Ben Coate

Ben has been involved with grappling, whether through wrestling or Brazilian jiu-jitsu, essentially his entire life. After wrestling throughout his childhood, Ben found Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a young adult and quickly fell in love. He has been training for over ten years and currently holds the rank of brown belt, and remains involved in both the MMA and BJJ scene. Ben has been writing about combat sports since 2017. He has interviewed and profiled some of MMA's biggest stars, including multiple UFC champions.

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