Gameplanning, Jon Jones, and UFC 151 in retrospect

jcow3

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First off, let me start by saying that I think maybe the reaction by some to Jones' performance is a little excessive. Floyd Mayweather has established himself as the p4p best boxer in the world with similar performances throughout his entire career, and the combination of a long layoff, change in opponent (who is of a completely different style and body frame with a completely different, totally legit skill set), personal factors including his family life and arrest, along with the potential hindrance of adding muscle mass through powerlifting (which could've potentially negatively influenced his cardio and mobility) all can attribute to his performance not living up to expectations.

This is the real world, and there can be more than one factor influencing an outcome (similar to the "body kicks vs short camp" argument for Conor vs Mendes- yes, BOTH equally played a role in Chad gassing out, not only one or the other). The biggest thing that I took from the fight was the quality that arguably makes Jones the best MMA fighter of all time, and that is his ability to follow and rely on gameplans. His coaches are absolutely brilliant at directing Jon so that he utilizes and maximizes his obvious natural talents and abilities while exploiting his opponents' weaknesses. It seems like his camps have very specific, well directed objectives, almost similar to a student studying for a test.

In recent interviews, his coaches have mentioned that they don't believe Jon will ever take another short notice fight, mentioning that taking a short notice fight against a new opponent introduces "too many variables" that weren't prepared for.
(http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/4/2...esnt-think-jon-jones-will-ever-accept-another for reference).

Now, this is not to question whether or not Jon is "not as good" as we initially thought, or any silliness like that. If anything, his performance against OSP proves (to me at least) that he is even better than I originally thought. However, my question to you guys is this: does this last fight against OSP change your opinion regarding his refusal to take the fight against Chael all those years ago? I am asking this to both those who supported his decision at the time, and also those who disagreed with the decision.

Obviously, he destroyed Chael when they did fight. But, that was after a training camp tailor made for a fight against Chael - for UFC 151, he had been training for an entirely different opponent in Hendo.



TLDR: does jon's last fight against OSP (and what some consider a "poor performance" on his part) change your opinion regarding his refusal to take the fight against Chael all those years ago?
 
Hendo & Chael were longtime training partners that's why Jones didn't take the fight, it was Hendos fault 151 was cancelled because he chose not to disclose his injury.
 
First off, let me start by saying that I think maybe the reaction by some to Jones' performance is a little excessive. Floyd Mayweather has established himself as the p4p best boxer in the world with similar performances throughout his entire career, and the combination of a long layoff, change in opponent (who is of a completely different style and body frame with a completely different, totally legit skill set), personal factors including his family life and arrest, along with the potential hindrance of adding muscle mass through powerlifting (which could've potentially negatively influenced his cardio and mobility) all can attribute to his performance not living up to expectations.

This is the real world, and there can be more than one factor influencing an outcome (similar to the "body kicks vs short camp" argument for Conor vs Mendes- yes, BOTH equally played a role in Chad gassing out, not only one or the other). The biggest thing that I took from the fight was the quality that arguably makes Jones the best MMA fighter of all time, and that is his ability to follow and rely on gameplans. His coaches are absolutely brilliant at directing Jon so that he utilizes and maximizes his obvious natural talents and abilities while exploiting his opponents' weaknesses. It seems like his camps have very specific, well directed objectives, almost similar to a student studying for a test.

In recent interviews, his coaches have mentioned that they don't believe Jon will ever take another short notice fight, mentioning that taking a short notice fight against a new opponent introduces "too many variables" that weren't prepared for.
(http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/4/2...esnt-think-jon-jones-will-ever-accept-another for reference).

Now, this is not to question whether or not Jon is "not as good" as we initially thought, or any silliness like that. If anything, his performance against OSP proves (to me at least) that he is even better than I originally thought. However, my question to you guys is this: does this last fight against OSP change your opinion regarding his refusal to take the fight against Chael all those years ago? I am asking this to both those who supported his decision at the time, and also those who disagreed with the decision.

Obviously, he destroyed Chael when they did fight. But, that was after a training camp tailor made for a fight against Chael - for UFC 151, he had been training for an entirely different opponent in Hendo.



TLDR: does jon's last fight against OSP (and what some consider a "poor performance" on his part) change your opinion regarding his refusal to take the fight against Chael all those years ago?
So, I agree with you on almost everything you said except the Floyd reference, Jones was the one chasing a running OSP. He didn't sit back and play defense the hole time, waiting to pot shot OSP, Jones brought it. I am with you on everything else though.

OSP got dominated from start to finish. He had nothing for Jones but lets also talk about what OSP had... he had and has Jon Jones kryptonite... length. Jon's not used to fighting people with a reach close to his, it slowed him down in the Gus fight and in the OSP fight (OSP has one inch more in reach and one inch less in height, when compared to Gus) it makes Jon look like a mere mortal that is just better than his opponent. So all in all a unanimous 50-45 decision is pretty damned good.

DC just came off a split decision win... Jones has only had unanimous decisions. DC thinks OSP is better than Gus and he might be but what does DC know. After Jon whoops that ass, DC should have to fight OSP, with a three weak lead up to get ready for him.
 
Good post man. Personally I can't blame him for not wanting short notice fights. It's all well and good to want to make your fans happy but at the end of the day this is his career and he should make decisions that are in his own best interests. I think it's clear that he's a process based fighter and so it's probably just a lot easier on him mentally to have a full fight camp so he's adequately prepared.
 
I think a lot of the best fighters have something Jones doesn't have, and that's the ability to adapt on the fly and instinctively make the best decisions during a fight. Jones, however, is second to none in terms of preparation. He knows his opponents inside and out, so by the time he's actually in the octagon, he's fought that exact fight dozens if not hundreds of times. He's a gameplanner, and the best in the world at it. Who else comes in, challenges his opponents' specialties (like Texiera), and completely dominates them at their own game?

In short, Jones' success comes from his confidence, and his confidence comes from his preparation. Without that, we see the tentative (but still dominant) Jones that showed up against OVP.
 
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