MMA fans have been waiting what feels like an eternity for Jon Jones to make his heavyweight debut, but according to his long-time striking coach Brandon Gibson, when he does finally set foot in the Octagon again it’s going to be well worth the wait.
“You think of fighters going up in a weight class, and they always put on size and mass and power,” Gibson said on Submission Radio. “You look your Conor (McGregor) from his 145 days, going up to lightweight, going up to welterweight. And that’s a 25-pound difference. Jon Jones, his weight is up there right now, and it’s much more than 25 pounds.
“So, he is hitting extremely hard and extremely accurate and technical, and fast. I’ve trained a lot of amazing heavyweights. I trained (Andrei) Arlovski and (Alistair) Overeem and Frank Mir and Travis Browne, and Jon Jones is more powerful, explosive, creative, dynamic than all of them. So I can’t wait to see Jon make that walk at heavyweight. It’s going to be something truly, truly special, and I’m humbled to be a part of it.”
Gibson acknowledges that both current heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou and former titleholder Stipe Miocic are both worthy opponents for Jones, but nevertheless he’s very confident that Jones will emerge victorious against them.
“Stipe’s the greatest UFC champion in heavyweight history,” Gibson said. “(He’s) very well-rounded, championship experience. He’s shown so much resilience in the trilogy with (Daniel Cormier) and his ability to come back. And Stipe has a victory over Francis, as well. He’s a great, well-rounded martial artist who’s powerful, who has devastating knockout power in both hands. And then Francis just has that X-factor – his size, his strength, and he can sleep anybody, from any stance, from any angle. He doesn’t need to be balanced or be punching off his back foot. It doesn’t matter.
“So they both have their challenges and their own unique ways, and we’re going to have to take each of them very differently – very differently. But Jon Jones has the skill set to get his hand raised in both of those bouts. There’s no doubt in my mind about it. There’s nobody like Jon Jones at heavyweight. There’s no one as fast, as gifted in all the disciplines like Jon is. And his IQ is off the chart. Not to say that these other guys aren’t smart, brilliant fighters, but Jon Jones’ IQ and comprehension of his game is unlike anybody else’s in the world.”
