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CAUTION: LONG READ
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After viewing this sparring session between Jones and Holly Holm, I noticed that Jones doesn't do so well with constant movement and straight punches such as jabs and crosses to the body or head.
This is something that Gus did against Jones for most of the fight and he made Jones look very hittable. Gus used constant footwork, moved in and out and landed tons of straight punches to the head and body.
This is something that Holly Holm just did in this video above, now I know it's a light sparring session, it's only boxing and it was posted back in 2011, but it seems after watching this video, Jones still looked to struggle with constant movement, opponent staying at a range and using lots of jabs to the head, and straight rights to the body.
I know we can't judge Jones based off of this video, but it looks like he may have had the same holes going into the fight with Gus.
Maybe I'm just reaching with this, but did anybody else notice that it wasn't truly just the straight punches Jones struggled with, it was the footwork and the angles that Gus used.
In this picture, we see that Gus used the jab and beat Jones to the punch. He threw the jab with his left hand, as he is in the orthodox stance, and he made sure to have his head ducked just a little bit to the right (correct way of jabbing, really) and Jones misses the left hook. This is something Gus did all night, each time he jabbed, he made sure he had his head out of the way and he expertly dodged almost every single big shot that Jones threw because of this. (Picture in spoiler)
Gustafsson also threw a lot of left hooks, when Jones would stick his hand out to keep range, Gus would throw a left hook and he landed it many times because just like with his jab, he would slightly lean to his right. (gif in spoiler)
Most times when we saw hooks from Gustafsson is when Jones tries to initiate the clinch, or when ever he tried to get in close so Gus couldn't be at a range to utilize his jabs and crosses.
After a while of Gus throwing his jab to the head and body and always being sure to lean to his right while doing so, Jones caught on and that's when he countered with a beautiful spinning elbow which caught Gus very hard.
Gus' jabs were working perfectly until Jones finally landed that counter, and then after that Jones started to step in close to Gus and every time he did, he threw elbows because Gus was then too close to throw his straight punches and cut angles to stay away from any danger. Every time Jones stepped in, Gus tried to throw the uppercut but Jones would beat him every time with his elbow since it's quicker, of course.
What I find pretty interesting is that although Jones is known to be mostly effective being at a range due to his reach, Jones found most success being in close and throwing elbows. It seems that it was the first time that Jones couldn't bully his opponent around because of his reach and because his opponent was a much better boxer than him.
Anyway, this is all I can point out right now. As I said, maybe I'm just reaching and I'm an idiot, but it's something I noticed from watching the Holly Holm video. Jones looked to struggle with constant movement, jabs and crosses while sparring with her, then in his fight against Gus, he happened to struggle with pretty much the same thing so he had to come in close and throw elbows in order to really land any significant shots to the head besides some head kicks at a range.. goddamn Gus has a hell of a chin!!
If you noticed anything interesting about this fight, post it up. I'd like to read some of the things that you guys can point out that I missed.
Hopefully these two can fight again sometime in the near future, both will be more prepared since they know each others style better, and Gus may have some new tricks up his sleeve in order to give Jones hell again.
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