How much tightening up and refinement of his technique does he have left to do? And how much big fight experience will the next two years bring to his game? He's never been beaten down or even come from behind to win a fight. If somebody brings the right plan and lands the right strike and flattens him, how positively do you think he will respond? The first loss makes some great champions crack, but it makes others much tougher to beat afterwards. :think :hat
It will be interesting to see how he handles a big wrestler like a rashad evans or phil davis. I think both could give him a tough challenge especially rashad evans. The big question right now is how good is his chin? Evans got knockout power so it will be interesting how jones handle taking a big shot to his chin.
I heard Mike Winkeljohn talking about Jones' potential in an interview earlier today. He's still really green when it comes to his stand up and jui jitsu. He's been able to sub these guys after he's broken them down in his fights. His long arms also make submissions much easier for him to apply, but he's still barely at blue belt level when it comes to pure grappling. Winkeljohn also said that he's going to get freakishly good as his stand up continues to improve. They say that Jones has excellent power in both hands and his feet. It's just a matter of him getting more comfortable with throwing combinations and sitting down on his strikes in actual fights. IMO If they can make his stand up even half as devastating as his GnP is, he's going to obliterate people.
Alot. The Machida fight will show him that his stand up is very good but not as good as he thought it was "I have longer arms and I think I'm just as fast, if not faster". He should realise his footwork and hands aren't as good so there is room for improvement. Before the fight they knew it was about distance and he didn't comfortably win that battle. Jones is VERY good everywhere with excellent wrestling and devastating wrestling. In his few fights he has already shown so much versatility in his game but he still isn't the best he can be. We may not see it until heavyweight.
Fingers crossed that he doesn't have bad luck with injuries or mentally go off the rails or anything like that, because the guy seriously has the potential to be the #1 ATG. Many guys have have exploded onto the scene and looked invincible, but Jones has already achieved so much and he is unique in the fact that he's improving every fight, but he clearly has SO much more room for growth. Guys like Belfort and Shogun, when they break out you get the sense that they are already operating at close to peak. Jones, you get the sense that against Bonnar and Hamill and Bader he was a baby in the sport, but now he is in middle school. One day he will be ready to step out of the cradle of 205, which he may have ruled with an iron fist for years, and take on the heavyweights. And there is every chance that he'll be a heavyweight champion, and potentially a great one. Maybe he won't achieve all of these things, but the potential for it is clearly there. It's plain frightening how little experience in the sport he has, and how much time there is left for him to learn much more about how to maximize his still-developing physicality. :yikes :hat
I still think Jones' weakest element is his striking. Obviously he's got KO power and many other advantages such as reach but he doesn't have the experience a Lyoto Machida would have, someone with technical skill could outshine him. That said, there really isn't anyone of that level at LHW. Anderson Silva would be the closest thing to a challenge on the feet, with Hendo second. I just think Hendo wouldn't be able to get close.
Yep and that means that if he just decides "**** wrestling, **** takedowns", then he's got two to three years at least of standing on his feet beating the **** out of everybody with his ever-improving striking, before he bulks up to heavyweight. Ridiculous. :-( :hat
