Breaking Bones

Jon Jones is one of the fastest rising prospects the UFC has had in quite a long time. However recently people have for some reason crowning him champion when in reality he is still a little ways away from coming close to championship material. Now that isn't to say Jones isn't a freakishly great athlete and fighter but there is quite a bit left to be seen in his fighting abilities. Now the main issues i see with Jones are: Submission Defense,How he reacts to fighting off his back,and what happens when he fights a top striker or wrestler. Now his next fight will be against the winner of Ryan Bader/Rogerio Nogueria and that fight will answer all or most of those questions above. So now lets get down to breaking(down)Bones Jones.

1.We have no idea what Jon Jones has in terms of jiu jitsu skill on the ground. Yes he submitted Jake O'Brien with a modified front choke but that says nothing at all about his overall skill. Submitting O'Brien honestly shouldn't cause people to declare that Jones can submit people at will, it's not like O'Brien is some jiu jitsu ace. And in previous fights Jones often makes a fatal jiu jitsu mistake that his somewhat lackluster opponents haven't capitalized on yet, he leaves his hands posted on the mat. Doing this is a big no-no in bjj as leaving your arms out gives an opponent multiple ways to lock in a submission. Now let's look at his potential fights in the future if Rogerio beats Bader then Jones has one hell of a good submission guy to face. And Rogerio is no slouch on the ground and Jones's elementary mistakes will cost him the fight.

2.Jones has yet to face a top flight wrestler who can neutralize one of his biggest assets. Now granted Hammil was a good wrestler but honestly Hammil is nowhere near the caliber of someone like Ryan Bader or even fellow prospect Phil Davis. So what would happen if Jones couldn't take someone down? His striking is good but its more flash then actual skill so i can't see him trying to outbox an opponent. So having someone to neutralize Jones in the wrestling game would help pave the way to showing that Jones is in fact not invincible.

3. Jones has yet to face a single top ten fighter in the Light Heavyweight Divison. Yup it's true so far in the UFC he's had fights against: Stephan Bonnar,Jake O'Brien,Andre Gusmao,Matt Hammil,Brandon Vera,and Vladimir Matyushenko. Now he has the loss to Hammil due to illegal elbows however in the rest of his wins he's dominated his opponents thoroughly. But lets look at his opponents a little bit closer.
Gusmao:0-2 in the UFC no longer with the company
Bonnar:6-6 in the UFC however is mainly around due to his fight with Forrest Griffin that helped ignite the UFC(Dana White has been quoted as saying Bonnar and Griffin will always have a job in the UFC)
O'Brien:4-3 in the UFC no longer with company
Hammil:8-2 in the UFC however both losses came to top competition while his wins are over mainly undercard quality opponents
Vera:7-5 in the UFC however most of his wins(4) come at Heavyweight,at LHW he has a record of 3-3 and has looked less than impressive with two of his wins coming over bottom competition.
Matyushenko:2-1 in the UFC however Vlad has yet to truly establish himself as a legit threat in the divsion and has yet to finish an opponent in the octagon.

Now that is far from top competition he's fought two guys who were cut shortly after,the two gatekeepers of his division,and a guy who has no set place in a divison. He has alot to prove in possibly the most stacked divison in the UFC today. I want to see him fight someone who is going to test his heart and chin,someone who isn't afraid to trade with him. Jones has yet to be truly tested by anyone how's he going to react when someone like Bader or Rogerio slams a big right cross on his chin and rocks him? What happens if Jones gets taken down and has to fight off his back? There are so many unanswered question about some of his skills that I think its crazy that people want to declare the man champion before fighting any top ten competition.

This isn't trying to say that Jon Jones isn't a good fighter, it's very apparent he's freakishly talented but I feel like he has alot of areas to work on before he will become the invincible machine that people seem to think he is right now.

Once again thanks for reading and feel free to message or e-mail me any suggestions for future articles or ways to improve my writing.