#ufc247

Easier said than done really. While 247 is bad, I can’t help but be interested in the main event between light heavyweight GOAT Jon Jones and the newcomer Dominick Reyes. So I decided to write about it.

Jon Jones is a risk averse atritive range kicker that prefers to pressure. He will occasionally shoot for a double leg. He wasn’t always that. In fact, he still isn’t always that. Occasionally we’ll get a glimpse of the man who was redefining how someone at 205lbs could fight while demonstrating some of the most dangerous and creative clinch, wrestling, and top control skills the sport has ever seen. But for the most part, Jones has paired down his game significantly. Sometimes to the point that it looks like regression.

But we’re not going to focus on that today. We’re not even going to talk about the stuff that Jones does well. Instead, we’re going to see how these changes to Jones’ approach to fighting have opened and/or exposed significant holes in Jones’ game and see how those holes can be exploited by a fresh challenger in Dominick Reyes.

Exploiting Jon Jones

As Tumblr is a bad site for longform, I can’t really sit here and breakdown the entirety of every Jones fight of the last 5 years. Instead I’m just going to nitpick examples of exploitable elements of Jones’ game from several of his toughest fights.