Cereal Gain the favorite?

[Street Bishop]

If we're strictly talking about striking then yes. Though I have no doubt Jones will take him down more than once, which makes this a pretty close fight imo.

 

[Juice]

Even though jones is undefeated*, he hasn't been in the cage in awhile
Ring rust is real, and I think Jon may be too used to sparring rather than full on fighting
But Henry isn't a dumb dude and think he's actually a great coach.

I got Cereal Gane via decision

Who do you flavor

It's Cyril Gane. But of course we know you wanted to try to be funny and call him Cereal Gane. Lamest joke ever.

Anyway, Jones by being better at every aspect of MMA. But I know there is always a chance of Gane winning, slight chance IMO.

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

What about past his prime Jones with a HW frame ?

Similar to my first statement. Past Prime Jones barely scraped by Santos and Reyes. Many believe he lost those fights.

I think a PastPrime HW Jones will perform even worse than he did against those two.
Gane is very skilled and a natural HW who moves quick and has finished durable fighters like Lewis and Tuivasa. I believe Gane is much more skilled than Santos and Reyes.

 

[AristotleAmadopolis]

Ring rust is dependent on the individual. Lots of fighters have big gaps in-between fights with no issues. If you are in shape everything else is just mental. If you know how to fight, you don't suddenly forget how to fight. Ring rust is usually people affected by everything leading up to the fight. How they train and how they deal with all the pre-fight stuff again leading up to the fight. If you are training right, you should be in shape with your timing sharp and everything on point.

disagree. When i dont play ea ufc for awhile and come back to it i an a bit rusty. This is just my personal experience though as a digital mma fighter.

 

[Banana Tree's Nemesis]

Is 35 or 36 year old Jon Jones still that great of a wrestler or are people just assuming mid to late 30s Jon at 265 can do what 23 year old Jon did at 205?

If you think about the entire history of MMA wrestlers almost to a T every one of them stops wrestling as their 30s progress. It's just too taxing on the body.

I'm not sure I understand your point?
Are you saying that wrestlers - switch to a more striking based style/ stop training wrestling/ have less success with it, once they hit the second half of 30?

Either way, I don't think there's that much truth to it. At 35 things just go southwards for most fighters. I don't think the style makes that much difference for that decline.
Guys like Teixeira, DC and Oleynik have still shown dominant grappling way over 35.
But I guess it depends on what you consider a 'great wrestler'. I'm not saying that Jon Jones would easily outgrapple a guy like Blaydes or Romanov.
I'm saying that he should be good enough to outgrapple Gane if he's able to take him down.

 

[Johnny_Knuckles]

What evidence do we have to indicate that Cejudo is a great coach?

Training an already elite fighter Devison to squeak past Moreno or training already elite Weili to a decision loss against Rose?

 

[Jarvan]

It's Cyril Gain. But of course we know you wanted to try to be funny and call him Cereal Gain. Lamest joke ever.

Anyway, Jones by being better at every aspect of MMA. But I know there is always a chance of Gain winning, slight chance IMO.

If you've seen a single jon jones interview about the gane fight, that's exactly what he calls him

 

[Jarvan]

Ring rust is dependent on the individual. Lots of fighters have big gaps in-between fights with no issues. If you are in shape everything else is just mental. If you know how to fight, you don't suddenly forget how to fight. Ring rust is usually people affected by everything leading up to the fight. How they train and how they deal with all the pre-fight stuff again leading up to the fight. If you are training right, you should be in shape with your timing sharp and everything on point.

I'm going by jons track record
Prior to his hiatus, he's looked great. It's after that we started to notice some kinks in the armor

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Even though jones is undefeated*, he hasn't been in the cage in awhile
Ring rust is real, and I think Jon may be too used to sparring rather than full on fighting
But Henry isn't a dumb dude and think he's actually a great coach.

I got Cereal Gain via decision

Who do you flavor

I'm leaning Gane as well.

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

See here’s the thing if Jones loses its Well you know Jones was out for 3 years and we always gonna do bad at heavyweight, like the Reyes and Santos fight proved he was out of his prime prime jones beats him. If he wins it’s gonna be like wooo yeah Jones is the goat but Gane is trash he fought nobody’s ofc jones was gonna win

 

[jeff7b9]

I'm not sure I understand your point?
Are you saying that wrestlers - switch to a more striking based style/ stop training wrestling/ have less success with it, once they hit the second half of 30?

Either way, I don't think there's that much truth to it. At 35 things just go southwards for most fighters. I don't think the style makes that much difference for that decline.
Guys like Teixeira, DC and Oleynik have still shown dominant grappling way over 35.
But I guess it depends on what you consider a 'great wrestler'. I'm not saying that Jon Jones would easily outgrapple a guy like Blaydes or Romanov.
I'm saying that he should be good enough to outgrapple Gane if he's able to take him down.

That's what I'm saying. Guys who are successful using a grappling heavy approach earlier in their career are forced to adapt to a more striking or clinching based approach later in their career because their bodies are not capable of enduring the grueling training and trauma required to sustain elite wrestling. Specifically knee, back and neck injuries accumulate and they wind up doing a lot more boxing and shooting less takedowns.

If they do not make this adjustment they wind up injured. Cain Velasquez for example.

People are different so it won't happen at the same exact age for every guy, but generally somewhere in the 30s depending on weight class and how many fights they have had.

Examples:
Hendo
Yoel Romero
Rampage
Fedor
Jones
Jose Aldo
RDA
Usman

Fans tend to lump in the grappling success earlier in the fighters career with the increasingly rare glimpses of it later in their career and lump it all together in one wide brushstroke.

Jon Jones manhandled everyone he faced in his early 20s. For a stretch of time his opponents couldn't even survive his onslaught and guys like Matushenko, Bader, Brandon Vera and Shogun were just blown out of the water from Jon's grappling and ground and pound.

Compare that to Jon's fights in his 30s and the vast majority of time in those fights were contested on the feet. The fights were he did manage to get control time he was only able to do it in the later rounds when his opponents were tired.

Jon has not scored a takedown in rounds 1 or 2 in his 30s. The last time he had a TD before R3 was 8 years ago in the first DC fight.

Jones rounds 1-3, since turning 30:

Reyes 0/4 TD 15 s control
Santos 0/1 TD 0 control time (whole fight)
Smith 1/4 TD 5:45 control
Gus 1/5 TD 1:29 control
DC 0/3 no control time (whole fight)

Jon was able to dominate Anthony Smith on the ground in rounds 3,4,5. It will be 4 years from that fight 3/2/19 to the Gane fight 3/4/23.


Maybe Jon will be able to successfully use wrestling to beat Cyryl Gane. It would be extremely impressive if he pulls that off. Jon has always had a tremendous chin, I tend to believe he will need it to get deep enough into the fight where he is more likely to be successful taking Gane down.

 

[Jitter]

How long has it been since jones actually wrestled someone? Jones dismantling of DC was extremely impressive, but i do not recall him wrestling santos who had no knees or reyes. People keep looking at jones at what he was at his best, not what he is now or has been recently

 

[Project 2501]

Rice Krispies by armbar!

 

[svmr_db]

Everyone who keeps leaning on the fact "Gane was outwrestled by Ngannou" are probably the same people who predicted Stipe would beat Ngannou in the rematch. Gane has had a lot of time to work on his flaws since that fight, people really talk like Jones is fighting the same Gane from last January.

 

[Paul E Gensinger]

Gane will tool the Jones who fought Santos/Reyes. Jones arguably lost against them and barely scraped by against those two. His wrestling failed miserably.

Prime Jones with the HW frame is a different story.

I'm thinking he's going to be slow with the weight. We'll see.
Also, two elusive fighters who are incredibly hard to hit. Might end up boring if they just dance.

 

[DapperDave]

I predict Jones by, "Hey wow, that one guy was much more skilled at MMA fighting than the other guy. Wow."

 

[Reffson]

I think Gane gonna hurt him with kicks and take him out by the 4th, maybe sooner.

 

[Reffson]

I predict Jones by, "Hey wow, that one guy was much more skilled at MMA fighting than the other guy. Wow."

Wow that is truly and ignorant statement. Gane is one of the most skilled HW's in UFC history. He didn't fight Francis with enough urgency, because Francis has frightening power, but that's not going to happen against Jones. When skills and age are close, size (and power) win out. By the 3rd round, if it goes that far, Jones is going to be surviving and not much else.

 

[Tweak896]

I dont see Gane getting the KO, which makes Jones dangerous. I could see him grapple him all 5 rounds or 3/5 for decision. Jones biggest threat is KO power.

 

[ChimRichalds]

See here’s the thing if Jones loses its Well you know Jones was out for 3 years and we always gonna do bad at heavyweight, like the Reyes and Santos fight proved he was out of his prime prime jones beats him. If he wins it’s gonna be like wooo yeah Jones is the goat but Gane is trash he fought nobody’s ofc jones was gonna win

It's a shame, but yeah that's pretty much what most people will say. In my book, this will be a career defining win for either guy.

Personally, I think Gane takes this one. He's got too many advantages, and I don't think Jones has the pure strength that Frank had to force TDs. Either way though, it's an incredibly intriguing fight.