It’s no secret to anybody that Jon Jones is pretty good at this whole mixed martial arts thing. He’ll roll into UFC 182 on Saturday as an essentially unbeaten champion who has almost never been seriously tested in his career.
He’s been so far ahead of the curve in his more recent title defenses that he’s begun toying with new skills and entering the belly of the beast more often just for the sake of it. He’s become, for all intents and purposes, a Superman of the sport.
People thought wrestling Glover Teixeira was his best path to victory at UFC 172, so he outboxed the Brazilian just to prove he could.
Before that, he contested a kickboxing match against Alexander Gustafsson despite what pundits thought best, and even before that he decided to out-wrestle wrestling stalwart Chael Sonnen for his own enjoyment.
The champion has enjoyed quite a run for himself since earning the title in 2011, defending it seven times and pushing his record to 20-1 with perhaps the lamest DQ loss the sport has ever seen serving as his lone black mark.
UFC 182 sees him standing across the cage from a new challenge, that of undefeated former heavyweight Daniel Cormier, an Olympian of years past with skill and character for days. Jones has seen similar obstacles in his past, but he’s not seen this particular obstacle.
In many ways, the possibility exists that he could be staring down his own personal kryptonite come fight night.
Cormier has the real potential to make Jones’ night long and unpleasant, to push him into uncomfortable areas by way of his heavy, bullying style and capacity for explosive, athletic takedowns. Though his resume is less than sterling and he’s getting on in years, he’s nothing for the champion to take lightly.
The fact is that, as he’s rounded out his game and become a near-perfect mixed martial artist, Jones has seen his wrestling falter a little. Where once his opponents couldn’t get inside to rough him up for fear of eating all manners of unique violence in the form of strikes or throws, they’ve more recently found success there.
Teixeira touched him up a few times inside (though that’s undoubtedly where the Brazilian does his best work) and Gustafsson scored a clean takedown despite a nonexistent amateur wrestling pedigree. Those are both great signs for Cormier, who works similarly well in close quarters and will surely land more than a single takedown if given the chance.
That’s the path to victory for the challenger: Embrace being that kryptonite to Jones in the wrestling department. Few people have managed before him, but some have had success in individual elements of that game plan. If Cormier can put them together, he could become champion.
Those words are more easily written than they are executed, however. The very idea that one has to pick disembodied elements of fights and game plans from separate opponents and then stitch them together just to give a challenger a hope speaks to how expert Jones is in the Octagon.
He’s a transcendent talent, the type that should serve as the blueprint for anyone coming behind him who fancies chasing UFC gold one day. Cormier, for all his decoration and respect in the MMA community, has his work cut out for him to take that away.
Everyone knows what he’s got to do to make it happen though. Every Superman has his kryptonite, and Cormier may have it in his possession for the Superman that is Jones by way of his wrestling pedigree and sheer force of will.
For however long their battle lasts, watching that exchange play out should be fascinating.
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