Jones' open fists

[SlomiGa]

Jones and Gustafsson are both absolute beasts, but I can't but get annoyed by how Jones takes advantage of his reach. He holds his hands out and spreads out his fingers so that his opponents can chose to stay on the outside and kicked to shreds by him or charge him and risk losing their eyesight. I've seen him do this a thousand times, Rampage complained about it and I've seen others complain too.

It ruins the flow of the fight as in the Gustafsson fight, as the fight was paused because Gus got poked in the eye. Jones has yet to receive a penalty for doing it.

I simply don't understand why he is never getting reprimanded for doing it?

 

[thatone**]

fuck, not this shiit again.

 

[HerpDerp]

It's a tendancy that he has to consciously avoid. That much is obvious.

 

[SlomiGa]

It's a tendancy that he has to consciously avoid. That much is obvious.

I can understand not having closed fists the entire fight, but pointing fingers in the face of the opponents face should never be OK.

 

[SlomiGa]

fuck, not this shiit again.

You must be a PhD student. Sherdog is blessed to have you.

 

[JosephDredd]

I can understand not having closed fists the entire fight, but pointing fingers in the face of the opponents face should never be OK.

Chuck "The Thumb" Liddell nailed a lot of fighters in the eyes, but no one talks about it now. No one's going to remember Jones doing the same thing.

 

[SlomiGa]

Chuck "The Thumb" Liddell nailed a lot of fighters in the eyes, but no one talks about it now. No one's going to remember Jones doing the same thing.

Yep he sure did, I can think of at least 3-4 instances where it happened. However, with Jones it's more obvious because of his reach. He can hold his long arms out, spread out his fingers and discourage attacks from his opponents (didn't work too well with Gus due to similar reach)

 

[HerpDerp]

I can understand not having closed fists the entire fight, but pointing fingers in the face of the opponents face should never be OK.

I agree.

I remember a UFC fighter arguing in the past that the gloves are partially to blame for fighters not constantly keeping a closed fist. The gloves that are given to the fighters before each fight are brand new, and as such, they're really stiff. You actually have to focus on squeezing if you want to make a fist, and as soon as you stop, the gloves will stretch your fingers back out again. Maybe if it took less effort to hold a fist with the gloves, atleast some fighters would be more likely to gauge the distance with a fist instead of an open hand?

Edit: It was Cub Swanson who talked about it. Here's the source.

 

[Dart Feld]

It's a bad habit for Jones. Not something done mailiciously though. Both got warned for it btw and nobody brings up Jon accidentally getting poked by Gus or whenever his opponent paws as well.

I don't really agree that it's some masterful tactic that is hard to counter or get around though.

Chuck "The Thumb" Liddell nailed a lot of fighters in the eyes, but no one talks about it now. No one's going to remember Jones doing the same thing.

 

[MadVibez]

Gus thumbed Jones in the eye same thing

 

[SlomiGa]

I agree.

I remember a UFC fighter arguing in the past that the gloves are partially to blame for fighters not constantly keeping a closed fist. The gloves that are given to the fighters before each fight are brand new, and as such, they're really stiff. You actually have to focus on squeezing if you want to make a fist, and as soon as you stop, the gloves will stretch your fingers back out again. Maybe if it took less effort to hold a fist with the gloves, atleast some fighters would be more likely to gauge the distance with a fist instead of an open hand?

Edit: It was Cub Swanson who talked about it. Here's the source.

That's a good point. I didn't know that the gloves were constructed in such a way... That's indeed a bad design. If anything, it should take more effort to open the hand than to close it.

It's a bad habit for Jones. Not something done mailiciously though. Both got warned for it btw and nobody brings up Jon accidentally getting poked by Gus or whenever his opponent paws as well.

I don't really agree that it's some masterful tactic that is hard to counter or get around though.

I'm not sure, I think Jones is way too smart not to know the impact his reach and open hands are having... And as such, I don't think it's a malicious tactic, I think the refs carry a bigger portion of the blame than Jones.

 

[Ughugh]

Gus thumbed Jones in the eye same thing

He caught him with the knuckle of his thumb in a punch. Not even remotely the same thing.

And Jon poked him three times. They stopped the action once.

 

[marcusnz80]

The fact is mma rules have been altered to stop fighters from doing natural things like: kneeing downed opponent, grabbing the fence, 12-6 elbows, headbutts, elbows (in some promotions) etc, so they can easily extend that to eye poking. It will be hard for fighters to adjust initially, but it can be done.

 

[Dart Feld]

That's a good point. I didn't know that the gloves were constructed in such a way... That's indeed a bad design. If anything, it should take more effort to open the hand than to close it.



I'm not sure, I think Jones is way too smart not to know the impact his reach and open hands are having... And as such, I don't think it's a malicious tactic, I think the refs carry a bigger portion of the blame than Jones.

I think it's pretty common with wrestlers that pick up striking. People forget to realize that Jones has been striking for 5 years. He still isn't comfortable with fighting off his backfoot and his striking defense is a mixed bag. I'm sure sometimes he extends his hand in their line of vision to obscure and stretch out distance too. The majority of the time it seems like a kneejerk reaction.

I thought it was handled well last night and if he had poked Gus again or if the eyepoke in the first had done damage that he'd have been deducted a point. Last night was the first time I've seen Jon conclusively eyepoke an opponent as opposed to a snapshot of his hand near their face or that Page gif.

He should def. stop falling back on it, it's a crutch at this point.

 

[s karlyle]

There are a bunch of fighter that "paw" with the lead hand.

 

[...El Ray]

Gus paws with an open hand as well...

 

[fight4ippon]

I can understand not having closed fists the entire fight, but pointing fingers in the face of the opponents face should never be OK.

I used to be critical of people that complained about this. This was a problem throughout the Shogun Fight, the Page fight and again in this one. I would like to give the benefit of the doubt and say it is accidental. Whether is intentional or not it is repeatedly happening and should not continue.

 

[...El Ray]

I agree.

I remember a UFC fighter arguing in the past that the gloves are partially to blame for fighters not constantly keeping a closed fist. The gloves that are given to the fighters before each fight are brand new, and as such, they're really stiff. You actually have to focus on squeezing if you want to make a fist, and as soon as you stop, the gloves will stretch your fingers back out again. Maybe if it took less effort to hold a fist with the gloves, atleast some fighters would be more likely to gauge the distance with a fist instead of an open hand?

Edit: It was Cub Swanson who talked about it. Here's the source.

Copy/pasting since some people won't even click/notice the link. Thanks.

''I think MMA gloves are crap, to be honest. First off, they're square. When they give them to you, they're a square piece of 4 ounce glove. They say that they're open fingered so you can grapple, and then you can close your hand to punch. I believe the gloves should be rounder, because we hit from weird angles. If you relax your hand, the way the gloves are now, the natural position is for the hand to be completely open, which is why so many people get poked in the eye. If they were curved, and you put them on and relaxed your hand, your hand would follow the curve, not completely open. You'd only have to squeeze a little bit to make a fist with a more curved glove. It's a balance that's missing with the current gloves. The padding, instead of just falling off at the sides, should follow the curve of the hand more.

When we get the gloves, the UFC tries to help out by sort of curving the gloves for you overnight. You also have to kind of stretch them out a little bit, because they're brand new and stiff. Some commission guys, like in Toronto, they wouldn't let anybody touch my gloves but me, and the problem with that is I can barely get them on. When you can't break them in, they're very uncomfortable. I had to put them on early and start hitting the pads early, the day of the fight, just so I could feel comfortable, and not have the circulation cut off in my fingers. If I do less handwraps, then I might break my hands again.''

 

[SlomiGa]

I used to be critical of people that complained about this. This was a problem throughout the Shogun Fight, the Page fight and again in this one. I would like to give the benefit of the doubt and say it is accidental. Whether is intentional or not it is repeatedly happening and should not continue.

I agree. I think Jones would have won regardless, but it just makes the fight less dynamic when eyepoke accidents happen and it's a reoccuring thing with Jones.

 

[Shonuff1980**]

Gus thumbed Jones in the eye same thing

Yeah, but it's cool to hate on Jon, hence this and many other shitty threads.