Mixed martial arts trainer Lloyd Irvin is high on Jon Jones and told the Wall Street Journal, that Jones at 23 is a “next-generation fighter.”
The sensational talent made his professional debut slightly less than three years ago on April 12, 2008.
Stephan Bonnar, of Ultimate Fighter fame, dropped a decision to Jones at UFC 94 back in Jan. 2009, and he knows a couple of things about the fight game:
“I’ve never seen anyone throw anything like that. I didn’t even know it hit me. I was laying there thinking someone from the audience threw a bottle or something….
He was like 10 feet away from me and he threw this step-forward back kick and it landed.
I went to counter him and I’m like 10 feet away from him. It’s something you’re not used to dealing with. I mean, 85-inch reach? That’s incredible.”
Jonathan Snowden has much the same take on Jones’ abilities:
“Looking at a snapshot of Jones’s career, provided by the amazing team at FightMetric, the numbers are staggering. Jones has landed twice as many strikes as his opponents in a seven fight UFC tenure. He’s taken down opponents with an almost 70 percent accuracy rate, one of the best in UFC history.
Almost a third of those takedowns were “slams” a takedown that sees a fighter take an opponent completely off both feet before depositing him on the mat. Conversely, no opponent has managed to put Jones on the mat. This includes a collection of great wrestlers like Ryan Bader, Matt Hamill, and Vladimir Matyushenko.”
Jones squares off with light-heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128 this weekend, and while his training partner, Rashad Evans, waited months for his shot at Rua, Jones had been playing the part of Rua in training with Evans.
That all adds up to a hell of a donnybrook in our estimation…
