Jon Jones reminded everyone why he may well be the greatest MMA fighter of all-time at UFC 285 on Saturday night with a swift guillotine choke submission win over Ciryl Gane, and afterwards he revealed that he only sparred three times during his training camp.
Jones had revealed during his post-fight interview in the Octagon with Joe Rogan that he’d felt a bit awkward in the initial striking exchanges with Gane, and later at the post-fight press conference he elaborated on that by revealing an injury had hindered his ability to spar.
“There’s always a slight feeling out process,” Jones said at the UFC 285 post-fight press conference. “I was dealing with a slight injury before this fight, and I didn’t really spar many times. I sparred a total of three times in this training camp. So my striking felt a little unfamiliar. I had drilled a lot. I did a lot of smart drilling, but I didn’t spar a lot.
“And so when I was out there it was like I was trying to remember how to do it, fight on the feet for a moment. But thank god that didn’t last too long. I was able to get my hands on him and that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life.”
Jones didn’t reveal any more details about what the injury was, but he did go on to state that using his wrestling and jiu-jitsu may well be something we should expect to see a lot more of from him in the future.
“I’ve been wrestling and grappling my whole life. I feel like my jiu-jitsu’s at an all-time high, my wrestling confidence is at an all-time high, and that just may be my style moving forward, getting away from all the kickboxing.
“Y’know, I want to save braincells, and fighting on the ground is just a lot more advantageous.”
All signs now point to Jones next fight being against Stipe Miocic, and it appears to be a fight that Jones is highly motivated for.
“The next fight is going to be awesome. I say it respectfully to Stipe: I would take time off from being a firefighter right now. I mean that with all due respect. My whole world is going to be focused on him. This is the biggest opportunity in my life, to be the heavyweight GOAT, and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got – absolutely everything I’ve got. Stipe is talking about how he’s heavier than me right now. His head is already in the wrong spot if he thinks weightlifting is going to beat me. He’ll never be younger than he is right now. He’ll never be faster. I’m going to not only beat Stipe Miocic, I’m going to finish Stipe Miocic before the championship rounds.”
