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What Made Jon Jones So Special
Learning judo's fundamentals with Jon Jones

FIRST THINGS FIRST
One of MMA’s best fighters ever competes this weekend for perhaps the last time. Jon Jones is fighting Stipe Miocic. Today we’re going to analyze how he capture the fascination of an entire sport en route to stealing the throne.
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Table of Contents
DISTANCE AND CREATIVITY ARE THE SHARPEST WEAPONS:
Notes From The Fundamentals Of The Gentle Way
One who aims high for the future must not be concerned with present loss or gain. The most important object in judo training is to develop speed and free movement of the body.
One of the most overlooked philosophers of the 20th century is judo’s founder, Jigoro Kano. After codifying his martial art, he took the time to publish the thoughts, principles, and philosophies that birthed judo. Most notably is guiding light of the art, “seiryoku zenyo”, or, maximum efficiency. This simple maxim moved judo away from other fighting systems that asked for acrobatic jumps, spinning kicks, and other, energy intensive means of disarming opponents.
Maximum efficiency is the first principle of judo. It is the foundation of the sport’s techniques. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to achieve against resisting opponents. The way we learn to achieve maximum efficiency is through what Kano called the most important part of training, developing a quick, freely moving body. This is broadly known as tai-sabaki, roughly translated as whole body movement, or repositioning.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen an athlete use repositioning to achieve maximum efficiency through high amplitude grappling better than the man headlining this week’s UFC fight. The former light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones.
Jones’s run to the title was arguably the most dominating display of fighting that you’ll ever see. He was originally billed as a wrestler and he blazed into the UFC with looping punches that led into a wild variety of takedowns that blurred the lines between freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, and judo. His creativity was only matched by his opponent’s confusion.
Today I want to look at Jones’s run to the title to show what I mean about repositioning, body movement, and why Jones’s principle driven grappling was as efficient as it was destructive.
TECHNICAL TAKEAWAYS:
Jon Jones’s Perfect Repositioning
Many people look at Jones and say, “He’s good because of his reach.” That’s both true and a limited understanding of his game.
What made Jones such a nightmare was not simply how long he was, but that he had a weapon for every distance his fights took place at.
INTERCEPTING AT A DISTANCE
Let’s start with how Jones meets his opponents attempts to close the distance.
Matyushenko jumps in with a hook. Jon ducks and grabs Matyushenko’s hips. He lifts one leg, steps inside the other, and clotheslines Matyushenko to take him down. Simple and effective. Matyushenko never had an opportunity to reset his base once Jones repositioned himself. | ![]() Jon Jones - Vladimir Matyushenko |
Below we can see Jones tapping his opponent at a distance to set up a similar takedown.
Watch Jones’s footwork here. Notice how he kicks Vera’s foot back to off balance him? That makes it easy for him to get momentum and the correct position. When Vera tries to knee Jones to stop him, Jones steps between his legs, turns him, and throws him with something like an ouchi gari. | ![]() Jon Jones - Brandon Vera |
Jones doesn’t only need to to intercept with his hands and head. He’s perfectly fine catching his opponents at the end of his feet.
Jones is circling and Bonnar is trying to cut him off. Bonnar leaps forward with a hook. Jones catches Bonnar’s foot mid hop making him fall to his face. Jones weaves under Bonnar’s arm to lock a rear body lock. Maximum efficiency, minimum effort. | ![]() Jon Jones - Stephan Bonnar |
Now let’s look at how Jones attacks his opponents head and neck to ruin their posture.
PULLING ON POSTURE
Another fundamental principle of judo is “kuzushi”. Kuzushi roughly translates to off balancing. The word comes from kuzusu, meaning pull down, and pulling down is one of the things Jones does better than almost everyone.
A basic cliche of grappling is, “where the head goes, the body will follow”. Pulling on someone’s head is probably the easiest way to achieve kuzushi because it forces their body to react and catch-up to their head’s forced movement. But it’s not as easy as just reaching out and grabbing someone’s head. Broadly speaking, you need to move at an angle, pummel for head height, and try to get your hands inside.
Jones and Shogun swing at one another. Jones’s right hook turns into a collar tie and he grabs Shogun’s far hip for good measure. Jones walks to Shogun’s backside as he pulls down on Shogun’s posture. Shogun frantically follows but Jones steps behind him to throws him with a kosoto gake. | ![]() Jon Jones - Mauricio “Shogun” Rua |
Some of Jones’s most dramatic throws come from him off balancing his opponents by using his collar ties.
Jones throws a head kick. Hamill covers and runs forward. Jones catches a clinch and drills Hamill with a knee. Hamill pummels for better positioning. Jones switches to a collar tie and under hook. Hamill’s head is way in front of his hips. Jones steps behind Hamill and throws his arm forward for an osoto gari. | ![]() Jon Jones - Matt Hamill |
PUSHING TO SETUP THE PULLS
A basic premise of judo, and really any grappling art, is the idea of push-pull. If you want a strong pull, push into your opponent so they push back.
Let’s look at several examples of how Jones pushes into his opponents so they push back into him and create massive throws.
Jones runs in with wild punches. Gusmao flaps his arms back. They end up clinched with Jones pushing Gusmao backward. When Gusmao walks into him Jones locks his hands, gives ground, and throws Gusmao backward with a textbook lateral drop. | ![]() Jon Jones - Andre Gusmao |
Later in the same fight, Jones showed a much more efficient throw.
Jones and Gusmao are hand fighting for a better position in the clinch. Gusmao pushes into Jones. Jones pulls with his under hook and blocks Gusmao’s foot for the gorgeous sasae tsurikomi ashi, or sasae for short. | ![]() Jon Jones - Andre Gusmao |
I think Jones’s foot blocks are among the prettiest techniques he uses.
Look at their feet. Bonnar is pushing into Jones so hard his near leg is barely on the mat. Jones quickly steps in, turns Bonnar, and blocks his foot for another beautiful sasae. Bonnar scrambles up. Jones pulls on his posture and throws a knee before they break. | ![]() Jon Jones - Stephan Bonnar |
Part of the reason these foot blocks are so elegant is because of how effortless they are. All you need to do is block your opponent’s foot before they can take a step. They go from walking to falling over their own foot that is no longer able to support them.
Jones isn’t limited to just blocking the feet. He can launch people with the bigger throws you see on judo highlight reels.
Bonnar is trying to fight Jones’s hands. Bonnar knees Jones in the gut. Jones steps off at an angle so Bonnar tries to step and turn to face him. Jones steps across Bonnar’s to block his far knee for the huge harai goshi. Jones immediately starts elbowing Bonnar on the mat. | ![]() Jon Jones - Stephan Bonnar |
Now let’s look at what Jones’s highlights might be most notable for.
STRIKING THROUGH ALL OF THESE EXCHANGES
When Jon Jones was making a run at the title, he wasn’t simply a high amplitude grappler. He regularly made use of his lanky frame with slicing elbows.
Jones is pushing into Shogun. While Shogun is trying to get better hand position, Jones steps across his body. That loads his hips so he can spin into an elbow. Before Shogun can step off the cage Jones jabs him backwards. | ![]() Jon Jones - Mauricio “Shogun” Rua |
And you can’t talk about Jon Jones without the following highlight.
Jones tries to hit an arm spin but Bonnar slips off. Jones jumps on a rear body lock. Jones walks into Bonnar, Bonnar leans back into him, and Jones launches him with a suplex. Bonnar starts to stand and Jones grabs his leg. Jones spins off of the single for an elbow, dropping Bonnar. | ![]() Jon Jones - Stephan Bonnar |
Now we can zoom out to look at the insane dilemma Jones puts his opponents in. If you stay outside, he can touch you but you can’t touch him. When you approach him, he’ll simply meet you in a way that immediately puts you off balance so you’re falling on your face. And if you don’t immediately fall over, he’ll find the clinch position he needs to launch you onto his highlight reel.
If you think Jon Jones is anything other than a martial arts maestro inside of the cage you’re delusional. You can say whatever you want about the relative strength of other divisions, but Jones was pulling off movie techniques after only a few years into his professional career against other battle tested veterans. He does stuff in the cage that most people can’t pull off in the training room.
Some say Jon Jones is the best fighter ever. Others claim he’s too controversial and his strength of schedule was too weak to be held in such high regard.
I’ll say this.
I’ve never seen anyone make better use of their gifts than Jon “Bones” Jones. Love him or hate him, you can’t afford not to learn how he was always able to reposition himself to end up a winner.
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
PGF Season was last week. You can watch all four of the regular season days, but here are my top 3 finishes:
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
ONE Championship just announced four major grappling signings. Fabricio Andrey, Cole Abate, Dante Leon, and the return of hall of famer Marcelo Garcia.
Conor McGregor’s sexual assault trial just started. The details are pretty horrible and long so I won’t be summarizing them here. The trial is expected tot take two weeks so we’ll be monitoring the fallout and sentencing.
Belal Muhammad has dropped out of his title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310. Now it looks like Kamaru Usman is in the running to replace Muhammad.
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