Turning the UFC LHW division upsidedown

The Jon Jones hype machine is gearing up (and with this post, FW has become another cog in that machine, I guess). Jones is 2-0 in the UFC after wins over Andre Gusmao and Stephan Bonnar and he’ll face veteran Jake O’Brien as part of the UFC 100 card. He’s 21 years old and the future of the light heavyweight division.

MMAjunkie has a decent profile of the fighter up. Interesting stuff. I didn’t know Jones was twice offered a wrestling scholarship at Iowa State, turning it down the first time because his grades weren’t good enough and the second time because he knocked up his girlfriend and decided to find a job to support his family. Gotta respect that.

I always thought Jones was a striker, not a grappler, throwing fists and elbows from all sorts of angles. Turns out Jones see himself the same way.

Here’s an excerpt that gets at the fight-fight-fight attitude he has, how he’s a wrestler who doesn’t like to grapple:

But Jones isn’t your average wrestler-turned-MMA-fighter. Even during his days a junior college wrestling champion, Jones looked for something more exciting than grappling with his opponent on the mat.

So he often would take down his opponent, let him up and begin the chase to take him down all over again.

“During my collegiate wrestling career, I was always the type of wrestler who didn’t want to get involved in ground too much,” Jones said. “I didn’t look at the ground as being exciting. I’d always win my matches by taking my opponent down, scoring the two points, and then allowing them to escape back to their feet. I’d do that over and over and over again. I’d take him down and let him up, take him down and let him up.

“When I got into MMA, I had the same mindset. I didn’t want to roll around with people and grapple with people.”

So Jones trekked to his local bookstore and scoured YouTube, looking for techniques on how to strike. And when he began to use his hands, he found something that he was a natural at.

He might not be able to dribble a basketball or catch a football, but there weren’t many people around who could punch or kick or elbow the way he could.

What makes Jones unique, though, is that his striking is so unusual. He’ll throw punches or elbows or kicks from any angle, often drawing audible gasps from the crowd. He dominated veteran Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94, never allowing his opponent to get into the fight by landing shots neither he could expect nor see.

And here’s Jones on light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida from a recent story in USA Today:

“I think Machida is getting a lot of hype, and I know he has lots of big wins over a lot of big fighters, and a lot of experience over me. I don’t think he’s Christ; I think he’s very beatable. They’re looking at him and his karate like he’s Bruce Lee. He’s not Bruce Lee. He’s very beatable. I honestly believe that a great Muay Thai champion will beat a great karate fighter any day; it’s been proven on lots of occasions. If Machida has (the belt) by the time I get to that level, I’ll be ready for him. I’ll have a lot of game planning and a lot of strategy ready.

I want to be that greater Muay Thai fighter to beat a great karate champion. I don’t think Rashad Evans came with any type of game plan, but to look really cool or look really fancy, dancing around in pretty footwork stances. He really didn’t come up with any way to beat him. I didn’t see any of his strengths. I didn’t see any takedown attempts or any straight right hands that are always good against southpaws or anything. He was just out there looking flashy. I’m going to go out there and pull the trigger if I ever get to fight Machida. I respect him a lot, but I definitely think he’s very beatable. I know I have a lot of time before I get to that level of fighting him, but when I do, I definitely won’t be nervous or intimidated by him at all, and (I’ll be) ready to fight him.”