Jones' glaring weakness: boxing and punching power

[YourBoss]

Jon Jones is a swiss army knife. he doesnt really need great boxing. his boxing is average but that doesnt hold him back.

 

[Snoowpy]

It's even more beautiful the way he wins.

I kickboxed a lot and always was blessed with power. I had an injury on my knee due to heel hook before starting to truly kickbox. So kicks on my right side weren't fluid. I had to box. My mate wasn't blessed with the same power but he had loads of weapons, 6'6 and long with a great long guard. We did MMA and Kickboxing. He just out maneuvered me and had loads of weapons. Teeps, stabs, spinning kicks long guard, kicks, knees superman punches.

It's always a guessing game. Include feints and you're getting pressured from just outside your range. Slowly losing points. Now this is sparring but with MMA gloves and no shin guards a 6'6 explosive dude can still bang.

The thing with this style and build is that everything becomes a guessing game. Even more so in MMA where you can get taken down. Which Jones is world class too.

You get close? Greco roman, Elbows, Knees. All from near punching range. As the dude is rangy.

Stay outside? No way in to attack. Forced to deal with stabs, jabs, teeps, body jabs, straights. You go in? Arms out long guard, circle out.

He can move too. So feints are always in play. When you're Boxing dominant the only way you can come in is by rushing, ducking and firing off a combination. 50/50 a fucker like Jones stabs you in your eye while doing it lol. It's so different than pure boxing.

 

[BowserJr]

Stipe was stunned from the eye poke though, and was completely unprepared for that punch. If it had been from a hard-hitting HW it likely would have been a KO on the spot.

That and Stipe's chin is clearly shot.

When a decent chin gets stunned by a pillow cost following a ko loss is obvious

 

[Tweak896]

I'm not clinging to anything. I'm just pointing out how amazing it is. I mean, if I had said like 20 years ago that one of the future GOAT contenders will be a bad boxer with almost no KO power, but will be so outstanding everywhere else that it won't matter, people probably wouldn't have believed me.

Still had Stipe stunned a little with his boxing as "bad" as it is. But fair enough, it's everything else Jones brings that really throws his opponents off, its like he has a 1000 different moves that could be coming your way. Unlike Stipe or others where you're going to get the same 1-2, depending on what feint gets bit on.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

We've been saying this same thing over and over again, what is it 17 UFC title fights now and all of them its rinse and repeat with this line and then nothing happens, no one can even rock him or drop him, let alone KO him

 

[Bend NvR Break]

So Jon isn't a one trick pony. Water is wet.. What's new?

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Still had Stipe stunned a little with his boxing as "bad" as it is. But fair enough, it's everything else Jones brings that really throws his opponents off, its like he has a 1000 different moves that could be coming your way. Unlike Stipe or others where you're going to get the same 1-2, depending on what feint gets bit on.

People take think they can gauge power during a fight just using their eyes.

 

[Laheys'Liquorland]

As phenomenal a fighter as Jones is, his boxing and power in his punches are by far his biggest weakness. Does anybody disagree?

If you look at all the ways he wins, it's almost never been due to powerful punches or quality boxing. If you recall, he got badly outboxed by Gus, could not get the takedown, and was only able to turn the fight around with a spinning back elbow. Against DC, it was a kick that got him the finish, and in the first fight it was takedowns. Against Stipe, a kick. Against most of his opponents, including Gane, he gets them down and either chokes them out or gets the GnP. He has exceptional reach so he can keep fighters at bay with half decent boxing, but they know he's no threat to them using his fists.

So I'm not suggesting he's not a great fighter and incredibly hard to beat, but is there any doubt that his boxing is bad and he has very little power in his punches? Even last night when Stipe seemed to have gotten poked in the eye and stood there stunned. Jones landed a clean punch right to the face and it wasn't a KO, nor did it lead to a finish immediately thereafter.

Thoughts?

This is the point. Jones is not the best at a single thing in the UFC.

But as a package the dude has Genuis Fight IQ and just wins.
No freaky power, striking to speak of.
Yet he is still hated lol.

 

[Tweak896]

People take think they can gauge power during a fight just using their eyes.

I'll admit I think I can, but you're right I'll see fighters collapse from weak looking punches and it makes no sense until a slow mo replay goes on. Some fighters like Jan don't look like they have power, but their shots carry tons of it in a weird way.

I don't think Jones is like Ngannou, but I'm sure if he bit down on some of his straights and timed it right he could've even put Stipe out last night. There's plenty of fighters that don't typically get KO's but never get the criticism Jones gets for it.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

So Jon isn't a one trick pony. Water is wet.. What's new?

Very true, that's what makes Jones special, he is not a one trick pony, he is so dynamic, and HW fighters and even a lot of LHWs are not very dynamic, they tend to do the same things over and over and over. Fighters usually are very dynamic in the small weightclasses, but rarely at HW. Jones is unique in that

Jones has a lot of weapons, he is very good at wrestling, very good at submissions, very good with ground 'n' pound, and very good with kicks and elbows, he also has good fight IQ and a good chin and a lot of experience.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I'll admit I think I can, but you're right I'll see fighters collapse from weak looking punches and it makes no sense until a slow mo replay goes on. Some fighters like Jan don't look like they have power, but their shots carry tons of it in a weird way.

I don't think Jones is like Ngannou, but I'm sure if he bit down on some of his straights and timed it right he could've even put Stipe out last night. There's plenty of fighters that don't typically get KO's but never get the criticism Jones gets for it.

A guy can survive a nuclear bomb punch if they know it's coming and get knocked out by a glancing shot they didn't see. Jon knocked this guy out not because of "power" but because his timing was on point and he surprised the guy with his counter. Yeah people will say the guy is a nobody but Jackson-Winks trusted this guy enough to safely spar with Jon. So the guy is at least an amateur on the fighting scale.

 

[Tweak896]

A guy can survive a nuclear bomb punch if they know it's coming and get knocked out by a glancing shot they didn't see. Jon knocked this guy out not because of "power" but because his timing was on point and he surprised the guy with his counter. Yeah people will say the guy is a nobody but Jackson-Winks trusted this guy enough to safely spar with Jon. So the guy is at least an amateur on the fighting scale.

I saw that before, also if I remember right Jones KO'd someone before coming into UFC. It reminds me of how people talked about Bisping like he had pillow hands his whole career, then he bit down and KO'd Rockhold and never heard it again. Jones chooses mobility rather than planting for power punches. He may not have the most power, but he rather use his speed and skillset than the other route. He's very calculated.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I saw that before, also if I remember right Jones KO'd someone before coming into UFC. It reminds me of how people talked about Bisping like he had pillow hands his whole career, then he bit down and KO'd Rockhold and never heard it again. Jones chooses mobility rather than planting for power punches. He may not have the most power, but he rather use his speed and skillset than the other route. He's very calculated.

Exactly. Bisping was a typical hit and move fighter completely content with hitting your 300 times and not getting the KO. They never meant if he planted his foot and threw a shot he wasn't going to knock someone's chin into the stands.

I still think the most impressive thing that came from that rockhold rematch was that Bisping CALLED THAT VERY SHOT before the fight. He said that's how the fight was going to end before the fight even happened. Him and his team saw a glaring weakness in Rockhold's game and took advantage of it.

 

[AfroBanana]

Jon himself says this an about himself “I don’t have 1 punch KO power”. People with steam always coming of their ears with him don’t realize how self aware he is as a fighter. He knows his strengths and weaknesses.

His biggest strength is self awareness and fight IQ in the cage. He may lack some self awareness in his personal life but he’s one of the most self aware fighters the sport has seen in terms of his craft.

I wouldn’t say his boxing is terrible. He has a good jab, varies his punches and is really good defensively at rolling with punches.

 

[Tweak896]

Exactly. Bisping was a typical hit and move fighter completely content with hitting your 300 times and not getting the KO. They never meant if he planted his foot and threw a shot he wasn't going to knock someone's chin into the stands.

I still think the most impressive thing that came from that rockhold rematch was that Bisping CALLED THAT VERY SHOT before the fight. He said that's how the fight was going to end before the fight even happened. Him and his team saw a glaring weakness in Rockhold's game and took advantage of it.

Yeah, that was kind of awesome to look back on. It's funny how everyone did a 180 from hating the guy to now he's kind of one of the most liked guys.