What happened to Jon's wrestling?

[Paynebringer]

- USADA happened ...

- Jones wrestling was always based on his arms reaching very far away from his body.

- This style requires a shit ton of strength, it was possible when Jones was on the Juice or against MW.

- Now that he is semi-clean, his wrestling is amateurish, slow and predictable, he doesn't have the strength necessary for this style of takedowns, can't even control a football player on the ground for more than 15 seconds ...

 

[blaseblah]

This guy used to take everyone down at will. The wrestling clinics against Bonnar and Sonnen immediately spring to mind. He manhandled Cormier in the wrestling department in their first fight. Basically whenever he shot on you, you were going down.

Bonnar is not that good. Sonnen is a middleweight. And he didn't establish top control on DC either.

 

[blaseblah]

Volkan was having his way with Reyes in their fight IIRC

Volkan landed one takedown that Reyes got up from immediately. You can take Reyes down, you just can't keep him down.

 

[skylolow]

I don't know if his wrestling has gone anywhere.

It has a lot more to do with want Jones has talked about from time to time. He likes to beat people at their own game. Look at how much he talked about taking the wrestling to DC. After the Santos fight the first thing he talked about was how he basically beat a kickboxer with kickboxing. The dude is walking poster for narcissism. It's obvious his lust to destroy you at your own game is what drives him today in training when facing opponents like the Reyes and Santos. Deep down he probably doesn't even believe those guys deserve to be in that cage with him.

I think a rematch with Reyes goes similar to Jones vs Gus II. Overall, I have no problem with running Reyes and Jones back.

 

[cmw43]

It seems to me that wrestling is one of the first things to decline as you get older. It requires the most explosiveness and also hard training on the knees/joints.

There are a lot of fighters who started as wrestlers, then end up just becoming boxers/strikers later in their career because they just can't shoot like they used to.

For Jones - I think he relies a lot on leverage with longer limbs than his opponents. Against someone of similar statue - it might be more difficult.

I think leverage is one of his main things, it's why he was so effective against DC and couldn't get anything going in the first Gus fight, he went something like 0 for 12 on TD's in that one and Gus even hit a TD on him.

 

[Paulsp]

 

[TR1]

He can't wrestle as well when he doesn't have a giant leverage advantage over his opponents.

One of the many reasons he looks mediocre when he fights non midgets.

 

[TheLinguist]

Maybe hip or knee issues? Jon was very technical so it’s not as if he relied on strength alone

 

[Migdagen]

Either a off drug thing or simply the size of his opponent. The first time Jones had difficulties bringing someone down was vs Gustfason, who is also quite tall. Now his last 2 opponents are also tall guys. Tripping them is much harder.
Btw, super impressed by Jones head movement in that fight. He is still improving in some aspect of his game!

 

[Normot]

He has been getting kicked in the legs for years now. I'm no doctor, but I bet his legs aren't what they used to be.

 

[Elmonstro1]

Hes kinda fallen in love with his striking but as last fight showed its weaken his wrestling slightly

 

[ProEra]

Dropping eight pounds of muscle probably did..we know why that happened though and imma jones fan

 

[Fedor5723]

It seems to me that wrestling is one of the first things to decline as you get older. It requires the most explosiveness and also hard training on the knees/joints.

There are a lot of fighters who started as wrestlers, then end up just becoming boxers/strikers later in their career because they just can't shoot like they used to.

For Jones - I think he relies a lot on leverage with longer limbs than his opponents. Against someone of similar statue - it might be more difficult.

Always noticed this aswell. Everything you said is true and you are very knowledge but I have a serious question. Why is it that these same people still look good in practice when wrestling?

 

[TR1]

Let me rephrase it for you.

Do you honestly think that Fedor or GSP went their entire mma careers without taking a single performace enhancer?

Ever heard of level playing field?

Not a hard concept.

 

[CPH]

How much control time did he have over Cormier?

 

[accolyte1022]

And here is a typical whitebelt response, ladies and gentleman.

It’s ppl like this dumbass who, when Jon does lose, will say he was “never that good”.

Stop watching mma. You’re clearly a new fan within the last two years.

Cuck Boy
White Belt
Joined:Yesterday
Messages:3
Likes Received:1

 

[ultramanhyata]

Steroids are a hell of a drug.

Goof Thomas says the decrease in Jon's grappling dominance may be attributable to his breaking his toe in the Chael fight.

 

[bigconan]

I think santos and reyes are particularly difficult to take down due to their physical attributes

more difficult than cormier to take down? more difficult than gus?

 

[Redrum741]

I noticed that he focuses more on standup nowadays compared to before

 

[It's-Only-Business]

Reyes is big and strong, and has a wrestling background. Jon wasnt willing to expend all his energy..


Also, w
Fighters learned to defend against bjj in a revolutiom. The same happened with takedown defense