Jon Jones is an amazing fighter at basically every level, but the one knock on him is he lacks the pure stopping power of many of his contemporaries. There’s a bit of truth to that, sure, but to say Jones can’t finish opponents is somewhat silly.
Case in point? His 2011 victory over Lyoto Machida. Relive that fight here:
After dropping Machida with a superman punch, Jones locked in a front headlock and started working for a guillotine. While Machida got back to his feet, the taller Jones kept hold of his neck, adjusted his grip and tightened it up well past the point of escape. The referee stepped in, and Jones relinquished the hold but, in doing so, let a lifeless Machida drop to the canvas in a heap.
Eighteen months prior, Machida was the UFC light heavyweight champion and seemed all but unstoppable with a unique, inimitable fighting style. Jones still strangled the life out of him and discarded his body with a chilling indifference.
Jones will look to imitate that performance at UFC 214 on Saturday, with Daniel Cormier playing the role of Machida. If he can pull off something similar, it would go down as the greatest victory of his career.
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