Is Jon Jones a good striker?

Armitage Shanks

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I was just watching his first UFC fight against Andre Guomao, and Rogan confirms something I've always felt about Jones "his striking is VERY rudimentary, he's throwing with his arms".

I've always felt that Jones looks like an amateur, even to this day, when he throws punches and kicks - he's certainly no Anderson Silva.

AND yet, he has destroyed some elite strikers on the feet. I mean...how can a guy who has no technique do what he did to Shogun? So maybe he can throw, it's just a new bunch of rules he's fighting with. Be curious to know what some of you guys who box/kickbox think.
 
He is with his takedown threat, reach, and eye pokes. Hard to get near him to land anything meaningful.

He would get pieced up and leg kicked to death in an actual high level kickboxing match though.
 
Yes, and Rogan is not a great judge of striking technique.
This is not to say that he is a great striker.
 
His hands are pretty bad

Kicks, elbows, knees, reach and creativity make him a tough match-up on the feet tho.
 
Jones is a weird case. His boxing is legitimately bad for the level he is at. His punching mechanics are rudimentary, he doesn't have excellent power or speed, he doesn't use head movement and his footwork is one note. Yet, he handles guys.

He doesn't need good boxing. He doesn't need to move his head that much either, because he has reach and height on everyone, and is very good at keeping range and moving back and out of the way. He uses his extended hand to keep people at bay and measure distance for his right hand AND his oblique kicks and knees down the pipe to shut forward momentum. Another thing is he is very hard to read.

Then, when you actually manage to get in punching range, he ties you up in the clinch, and Jones has an EXCELLENT clinch. Great elbows and knees and control. It's uncommon in MMA for a tall, lanky range fighter like him to have the takedown offense/defense and overall wrestling that he has from the clinch as well on top of everything else. He can take down anyone when he has to.
 
He's a complete striker, decent at some thing, great at others.
 
It helps when your have a 3 foot reach advantage on your opponent

And inb4 "but Struve": Struve ko'd the current HW champ
 
Being better athlete will do that

That's why NBA/NFL players would dominated UFC/mma if they cross over

Too big, too strong, too fast, too good
 
I was just watching his first UFC fight against Andre Guomao, and Rogan confirms something I've always felt about Jones "his striking is VERY rudimentary, he's throwing with his arms".

I've always felt that Jones looks like an amateur, even to this day, when he throws punches and kicks - he's certainly no Anderson Silva.

AND yet, he has destroyed some elite strikers on the feet. I mean...how can a guy who has no technique do what he did to Shogun? So maybe he can throw, it's just a new bunch of rules he's fighting with. Be curious to know what some of you guys who box/kickbox think.
He's usually fighting over the hill middle weights that may or may not have taken a dive to cash out at the twilight of their careers. Either way, put him in there with John Wayne Parr or Buakaw and he'd get slaughtered. Period.
 
I was just watching his first UFC fight against Andre Guomao, and Rogan confirms something I've always felt about Jones "his striking is VERY rudimentary, he's throwing with his arms".

I've always felt that Jones looks like an amateur, even to this day, when he throws punches and kicks - he's certainly no Anderson Silva.

AND yet, he has destroyed some elite strikers on the feet. I mean...how can a guy who has no technique do what he did to Shogun? So maybe he can throw, it's just a new bunch of rules he's fighting with. Be curious to know what some of you guys who box/kickbox think.
That was literally his first ever UFC fight at the age of 20....I'm not sure if this is a troll thread or not. Go watch his Muay Thai clinics v Rashad and Glover. His 2 best performances and they weren't even finishes.
 
That was literally his first ever UFC fight at the age of 20....I'm not sure if this is a troll thread or not. Go watch his Muay Thai clinics v Rashad and Glover. His 2 best performances and they weren't even finishes.

20 is VERY late to start learning how to throw a punch - too late for muscle memory. Imagine a boxer starting when they were that age. I mean if you look at Silva and those guys, they were doing it before they had pubes.

I think the people who talk about his reach and general physicality are on to something.
 
It's mma man emphasis on the "Mixed" and Jon's mix is just sick so he doesn't have to rely solely on striking to win a fight, this is why he has one of the highest fight IQ's in the game.
 
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Take away the threat of the takedown (like in a kickboxing match) and you'd see Jon's deficiencies in his striking. He'd still have reach and elbows but a skilled kickboxer could get inside his reach and make him pay for his bad boxing defense.

<mma1>

Thankfully, for JBJ, he doesn't fight in kickboxing...
 
As someone already said, he's versatile and a jack of all trades.

Sometimes I think being lanky/awkward helps.
 
Jones had been fighting professionally for four months and had been training MMA for less than 9 months when he fought Gusmao. I'm sure that's a totally accurate representation of his current striking abilities.

Shertards are in rare form today.
 
His clinch striking is great. His kicks are decent and thus great by pathetic LHW standards.
 
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