Jon Jones is calling in the big BJJ guns ahead of his first defense of the UFC heavyweight world championship.
On November 11, ‘Bones’ will return to the Octagon eight months removed from his shocking two-minute submission victory over Ciryl Gane to claim the vacant heavyweight title. This time, Jones will defend the crown against the man many consider to be the division’s greatest competitor, two-time titleholder Stipe Miocic.
To prepare himself for the danger that Miocic presents, Jon Jones has been putting in some work with perhaps the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner in the world today, ‘King’ Gordon Ryan.
During an appearance on Morning Kombat, Ryan revealed that Jon Jones had reached out to him on Instagram for some insight as ‘Bones’ marches toward one of the biggest fights in UFC heavyweight history.
“Stipe, there’s nothing really special that he does as an MMA grappler,” Ryan said of Jones’ next opponent, “He’s not bad but it’s not like he has an amazing ability to hip heist up or an amazing triangle or armbar or gets mounted on you, you’re never gonna get up. He’s kind of like a good, generic, all-around guy. So, I think that — obviously, Jon studies a lot of tape on him as well — at this point, Jon is just interested in doing things that he wants to improve upon as an athlete himself.
“If there was one thing I saw that Stipe did that was dangerous to Jon, or that I think could give Jon problems, then I would force Jon to be in those positions. But Stipe’s not known as a super dangerous grappler so I think it’s just overall Jon is just trying to improve as an athlete” (h/t MMA Fighting).
Gordon Ryan Likens Jon Jones to an MMA Great
As for his thoughts on Jon Jones specifically, Ryan believes ‘Bones’ is in many ways like former UFC welterweight and middleweight champ, Georges St-Pierre.
“Jon is a lot like ‘GSP,’” Ryan said. “He’s not the best wrestler in the world, he’s not the best striker in the world, he’s not the best at jiu-jitsu in the world but when it’s time to put things all together — just like Georges — he does it better than anybody else in the world. So, if you get a high-level wrestler, he’s gonna lose a wrestling match [and so on]. But when it’s time to actually fight, he’s better than anybody else in the world.
“The two things that impressed me to a very shocking degree with him was No. 1, his ability to learn moves. Because most guys at his level who are successful, and most guys who are in their mid-30s and they already have an established game over two decades, they have their game then once you teach them something they don’t really retain.
“It’s like they have their game and that’s it. With Jon, he’s always looking to integrate new things into his game and if he has five different topics he asks me about and I teach him five things, he might disregard three of them but if he likes two of them, he will immediately be like, ‘Okay. That’s a part of my game now.’”
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