Vinny Magalhaes is one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in MMA today. When he speaks about BJJ, people tend to listen. The Brazilian recently expressed some doubts in the ground game of UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
After watching Jon’s last fight, I could just tell Chael to pull guard and he’s likely to submit Jones. I don’t know, I’m not going to disrespect the guy. He has an excellent overall game, incredible athlete. He’s super young so he can get better in everything else. But his ground in his last fight was a little suspect.
In Jones’ last fight, the champion was caught in a tight armbar from BJJ black belt Vitor Belfort. The challenger pulled guard and swung his legs over to slap on the submission attempt.
Although Belfort is a black belt in BJJ, Magalhaes wasn’t impressed with Jones’ defense from guard.
He got caught in an armbar by a guy who is not known for having great jiu-jitsu for MMA, even though Vitor‘s a black belt, he’s not known for having great jiu-jitsu for MMA. And especially getting somebody in the submission off his back, it made things even more unbelievable.
Here’s where Magalhaes gets a little crazy in his breakdown of how Chael Sonnen could take down the champion in their fight.
Me judging as a technician, as an expert in jiu-jitsu, I don’t think Jones has the kind of ground to handle a guy with incredible guard. I think I’m going to work on that with Chael, just work on his guard, pull guard and Chael will submit him off his back.
Let’s get one thing clear: Sonnen doesn’t have a great guard. His game is centered on getting top control, grinding out the rounds on top while applying constant pressure.
Sonnen would stand to have the greatest chance of success by securing a tapout from a top position, like his arm triangle against Brian Stann.
Check out the full video to see Magalhaes discussing his future plans (like possibly facing Matt Hamill), his “history” with the Nogueira brothers, and a staredown/shove from Renato Laranja.
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