Originally Posted by
Fanny Batter
Yeah, these guys have access to nearly 6 hours of fight footage of Jon Jones. When he fought Bader, Bader sees the wrestling credentials and focuses on that, discounting the difference between NCAA and MMA wrestling. When he fought Shogun, he hadn't fought a Shogun, great stand up and good sweeps off the bottom, so Rua trains sweeps and keeps his stand up sharp. Jones proves he has an elite base and poise from top position for the first time, and better stand up than what he'd shown. Rampage, doesn't see Jones' boxing and striking fundamentals (was still wild against Shogun) as a threat, so if he keeps it on his feet he wins. Nope, gets dissected moving forward and submitted. Machida, more seasoned striker, hasn't seen Jones fight at distance and having to lead, so gameplans around the presumption that his skillset matches up in that regard. Evans, explosive ability and elite wrestling, Gustafsson range, Glover's power in close quarters, Cormier's clinch, wrestling, uppercuts, conditioning. By now, we've seen him against every kind of style, and while he's great everywhere, there's a little something to take from every fight to implement into your game to give you the best chance. It's not just a "better boxer so I'll just box him" scenario, it's finding a range and a pace that makes his skills less sharp, and being conditioned enough to do it for 25 minutes. Which is difficult because the pace he doesn't like is fast, high levels of movement and strong defending the takedown against the fence. These are 205lb men, and that's the hardest way to fight for 25 minutes. Sitting down on their punches would deplete the energy further so it's harder to land continuous big, scoring shots and maintain it. He's got an elite chin so he's hard to put out anyway if you do.
He's still a huge puzzle. Maybe Reyes needed a five rounder to fine tune conditioning? Or maybe that is the maximum level his body can realistically achieve, an excellent 10 minutes, a good additional 5, and merely OK in the championship rounds? Maybe if his conditioning was to a 5 round pace his performance in the first 3 rounds is lesser and he loses a methodical 50-45? Cormier fought really well early too in both of their fights, but sustaining that pace against a motor like Jones is unrealistic.