The "I almost beat Jon Jones" curse

[Burt Kocain the wrassler]

Career of most people who fought GSP went down the drain as well.

 

[BigGucci]

Everyone knows Reyes beat Jon though.

 

[Koro_11]

Or maybe Jones just isn't that good?

 

[MMAProfessional]

Jones has a tendency to coast and get lazy in there. I have no doubt he could have taken both fights to the ground but he barely shot. Personally I thought the right decision was made in the Gus, Santos and Reyes fights. I think people are use to Jones dominating so when it's close people make it into more than it is. The really issue is I think both guys didn't fight all that stiff competition to get the title. Santos had a good win against Jan but he got hurt bad against Manuwa and Jan. Beating Clark and Manawa isn't all that impressive. Reyes didn't have that good of competition either and arguably lost to Ozdemir. I think they are both just fighting tougher guys now and can't hang.

 

[WHITE ANDERSON]

Glover didnt come close at all to beating Jon. That was one of Jons best performances and an underrated beat down for 5 rounds by Jon on a prime Glover.

i didn't say glover came close to winning
what i said was that it's actually a curse for all of jones' opponents
they've all had downhill careers at LHW after jones took their souls except for glover

that's why glover will be champ in 2021 and prove he is better than jones

 

[J180]

Jones struggles against opponents with similar height and reach, especially when he is off the PEDS.

Poor DC is only like 5'10 max.

Jones been fighting guys his size from the moment he entered the UFC

Fought at HW before fighting Jones

Fought at HW before Jones

 

[GoGetSomeFansJon]

i didn't say glover came close to winning
what i said was that it's actually a curse for all of jones' opponents
they've all had downhill careers at LHW after jones took their souls except for glover

that's why glover will be champ in 2021 and prove he is better than jones

Yeah but the topic is about fighters who came close to beating Jones. Glovers late career resurgence is great tho but the almost beating Jones curse is starting to sound like the EA curse

 

[Sticko]

Jones been fighting guys his size from the moment he entered the UFC

Fought at HW before fighting Jones

Fought at HW before Jones

Didn't Jones have a reach advantage over most of those guys though?

 

[Vec-Tron]

Jon always did steroids, but he melted the damn beaker before Gus 2. He was clearly juiced off his tits for that fight. They had to move the fight to another state just to have it go down.

Santos and Reyes fights are just the result of him not taking as much steroids as other points of his career.

 

[jinvv]

Surely Thiago is on a losing streak because of some curse, totally not because he completely destroyed his knees.

 

[alex21cms]

It makes Reyes look like he caught lightning in a bottle in terms of his performance against Jones, but I think it's more or less that his style only works if you let him fight at range, and the opponent doesn't have the power to deter him or put him on notice.

Both Jan and Jiri didn't let him settle in and establish the pace, and control, and let it be known they're going to put heavy hands on him and pressure him out the gate. That seems to be his weakness. For all his counter striking ability, if the other guy has just as much power, he struggles because he doesn't fight well in the pocket as he does at kicking range where he can feel out his counters and cut his angles.

volkan exposed it long ago tough

 

[alex21cms]

it goes way beyond that every fucking guy who talks shit about jon losses next
walker rockhold anderson izzy gus reyes dc santos weidman and the list goes on i kind a fear for jan now

 

[alex21cms]

Didn't Jones have a reach advantage over most of those guys though?

not bigger than the one he had against dom or gus jon s weakness is not guys who match him size is guys who can close the distance and had good boxing skill like dom and gus but he can still beat them

 

[DaleBoca]

Jones been fighting guys his size from the moment he entered the UFC

Fought at HW before fighting Jones

Fought at HW before Jones

And went to a decision v nearly all of them. He enjoys beating up bloated 185ers.

 

[daniel san]

His toughest fight definitely was against Gus, he took a beating but managed to win three rounds but it was close. I had him clearly winning against Santos but losing to Reyes, but these fights weren’t “tough” per se, he didn’t take much damage and he didn’t really struggle, it’s just that he barely did anything to secure the win. Piss poor performances against guys he should have dominated. Who knows if it’s PEDs, partying or his arrogance (i.e. determined to beat his opponent at their own game). I don’t like Jones but I would like to see aggressive/intelligent Jones return instead of this poor version of him that fought Reyes and Santos (and OSP).

 

[Asahi]

It must take alot out of your motivation not only fighting a roided champion but also paid of judges. No champion have been protected like Jones both inside and outside the cage.

 

[TheJohnnyWalkerEra]

Matt Hamill went 3-6 in his next 9 after demolishing Jones

 

[jumasterflex]

It's not that much better when you beat Jon either...one man knows this

 

[91 seconds]

His toughest fight definitely was against Gus, he took a beating but managed to win three rounds but it was close. I had him clearly winning against Santos but losing to Reyes, but these fights weren’t “tough” per se, he didn’t take much damage and he didn’t really struggle, it’s just that he barely did anything to secure the win. Piss poor performances against guys he should have dominated. Who knows if it’s PEDs, partying or his arrogance (i.e. determined to beat his opponent at their own game). I don’t like Jones but I would like to see aggressive/intelligent Jones return instead of this poor version of him that fought Reyes and Santos (and OSP).

When a lot of people on here think of Jones they picture the 24 year old taking people down and elbowing them into Bolivia. His performances have been less than stellar for a while now.

 

[TrainHard]

Two explanations:
1 Jones just isn’t as good as he used to be and a close fight against him is not all that
2 Jones is exactly as good as he’s made out to be, and these fighters put absolutely everything they have into training for and fighting him, while he just turns up off a Friday night partying and does enough to secure a close decision. Then they go back into fighting partly broken by the experience, and partly inflated by it, but unjustifiably so - this sets them up for underestimating their subsequent opponents and training less hard. Before they know it they’re on a skid of two or three fights and their confidence has disappeared