In his early UFC career, wrestling was a key foundation forJonJones’ success.
If the action ever got to be too much on the feet — though itrarely did — Jones, a junior college national champion at IowaCentral Community College, could always resort to taking hisopponent down and battering them with elbows. In more recent years,Jones’ wrestling hasn’t been as much of a factor as he’s reliedmore frequently on his length and kickboxing to carry him tovictory.
That could change as the Jackson-Wink MMA standout prepares to moveto heavyweight in 2021. Jones, for one, expects to be much morepowerful with his takedowns with added weight and strength in hislower half.
'When I was 205, I always had a hard time getting down low,' Jonestold ESPN. 'Or hated getting low, with [single-leg takedowns] andstuff like that. Almost as if my knees were killing me to doit.
'Now that I've been working on my legs so much and they've gottenthicker ... I think that's going to translate into me shootinghigh-crotches and shooting double-legs. I think it'll make thosemuscles a lot faster. I predict that my shooting ability and mywrestling is going to just be faster. There's just more power, andmy ass has gotten a lot bigger. I think my double-legs are going tobe one of the biggest differences in my game that people are goingto notice.'
Jones revealed that he is currently 240 pounds with a target weightof 245 for first heavyweight training camp. For now, the opponentfor that initial foray into the big man’s division is unknown.“Bones” could face the winner of the title bout between Stipe Mioicand FrancisNgannou, which is targeted for March, or he could lock hornswith another Top 10 adversary.
'I go back and forth,' Jones said. 'Sometimes I think I should takelike a top-10 guy [at heavyweight] and just get my feet wet, figureout what's happening. And then the other times, I think, 'F---k it.Let's just go big or go home.' I'm trying to get these big-moneyfights these days. I like taking care of everybody around me.”
Regardless of what the future holds, Jones believes he has made theright choice with the move up a division after dominating lightheavyweight for years.
'The light heavyweight division was fun, but I just wasn't scaredof those guys anymore,' Jones said. 'Like, none of them. And Ithink it showed in some of my performances. Obviously, I stilltrained hard. But there was no urgency in some of my lastfights.
'With these next guys I'm going to be going up against, I respectthese guys. These guys are intimidating -- they're intimidating ass---t. It just gets me up in a whole different way.”