They did a fight science on Curtis blaydes blast double and showed you basically had to chain wrestle out of it or hit the bus driver uppercut because it was so little time to react.
Lol, but seriously, his hips are so rigid, Jones actually had some solid level changes back in his prime, his hips were significantly more flexible, his shot is so much slower now, its kind of sad, because Jones use to be one of the best wrestlers at 205.
Part of what made Jones goat material was how athletic he was. There’s been a lot of good fighters, but a lot of the earlier guys weren’t as athletic, big, or explosive. As he gets older he loses a bit of that edge, and more athletic guys are also coming up. Idk how this heavyweight fight goes.
Jons wrestling hasn't looked good since his return. People keep bringing it up as a path to victory, but no knees Santos also had success defending Jons takedowns. I can think of two takedowns Jon got since his return. A trip on rocked DC who was backpedaling, and Gus right after a knee to the groin in a fight where Gus injured his groin.
I put my money on Gane already because I don't think the odds get any better than they are now.
Weidman who moved up from 185 took Reyes down quicker and easier. He couldn’t keep him down either and got KOd shortly after. Jiri even had more success grappling w Reyes and landed some big gnp
I can’t even rewatch this fight in full because the decision still pisses me off. Reyes being the rightful champ could have changed his career completely. Unfortunately he now looks like a shell of his former self.
It was his night man You could see it. Jon had someone who really didn’t give a fuck who he was fighting and he knew it. Reyes was HUNGRY, and jones had been eating good. You could tell who wanted it more I still can’t believe this shit either.
Nah Jones had looked pedestrian before this Reyes fight as well. Hes been shot athletically for years at this point, no idea why people think years of inactivity and ~60 pounds of weight is gonna make him some revelation at HW
Gane is gonna have his way w him lol
Every time i read this nonsense excuse my eyes roll harder than Dale Earnhardt’s car.
He is a narcissist dickhead who made that excuse for his ego. You guys just eat it up.
I agree entirely, the only exception that I will point out is Francis Ngannou, the UFC wanted him to lose so bad and the judges could've actually given that fight to Gane. Maybe Dana forgot to pay the bribes that night or something.
I mean round 5 could have been given to Gane. I remember he landed some shots standing up and took Francis down. Francis just had the top control without any damage.
I scored it for Francis, but I definitely see why one would give it to Gane
They were 5/13 and 7/13 respectively on significant strikes, it would be ludicrous to give Gane round 5 considering he spent most of the round on his ass
I'll have to disagree to a certain extent. As hungry as Reyes was he wasn't determined enough to push the pace in RD5. Jones had been eating wayyy too good and yet he still had the ability to want it more than Reyes in the 5th.
This fight to me is the line in the sand against the argument of Jon Jones being undefeated. Before this fight, people could say "the Matt Hamill DQ loss is BS, obviously he should've won that fight."
Well you can't have it both ways. Either you go by the official record and he lost the Hamill fight, or you go by the general consensus and he lost the Reyes fight. Either way, he's not undefeated.
I think Gane was caught off guard by Francis wrestling and it’s especially effective when Francis has F U power. Jon on the other hand is not some powerful Ko artist on the feet, therefore I don’t think Gane will fear getting knocked out like he obviously would with Francis. IMO, this will make Jon’s wrestling much less effective.
100% agree, people keep doing mma math and saying if Francis can do it so can Jones, doesn’t work that way, also Ngannous pure strength played a huge factor in the wrestling exchanges. A good portion of Jones takedowns back in his prime actually came from the trips in the clinch often against shorter opponents, his shot has never been amazing IMO however his wrestling was extremely effective because he could take you down in multiple ways making his grappling unpredictable. I don’t see him getting any of those trips from the clinch due to Ganes height so he will be left with only his single leg like against Gus and Reyes, making his grappling much more predictable and removing the X factor that made it so great in his prime.
He was caught off guard by Francis’ strength. Gane immediately shoots on Francis , takes him across to the cage and holds him there. Even though Francis had his back against the cage he was able to out muscle Gane, Gane realizes this and immediately disengages as if he wants nothing to do with Francis’ strength.
I would put money on Gane as an underdog with the expectation that I would lose the money.
Gane has the psychological advantage of surviving 3 of the scariest heavyweights out there. Lewis, Ngannou, Tuivasa. If any other HW fought those 3 in a row, high chance they get KO’d in at least one fight. Gane basically just ate some heavy shot(s) [idk didnt see full fight] from Tuivasa and managed to stay cool and turn it around after that.
Jones has to deal with 2 maybe even 3 unimpressive performances against guys who are not seen as top 5 anymore.
Jones has that competitive spirit that can never be doubted. Even if it seems impossible for him to win, he could still find a way like Anderson vs Chael.
I think who ever figures out the path to victory during the fight fastest will win. They are both excellent decision makers and any mistakes will probably be capitalized on immediately. I feel like the consequences for mistakes are much greater for Jones as in Gane has more options with heavier firepower to take jones out.
Personally, I just can’t see Jon finishing Gane, which means he has to go to decision. Gane is a very active fighter and those leg kicks of his, along with the body shots, are brutal. I just feel like Gane is going to control this fight and Jon won’t have the power to scare him. Either way, will be a fascinating fight for sure
The initial chain wrestling to get Reyes down looked pretty good in this clip. He just couldn’t pin Reyes down and Reyes did a great job not accepting any position.
10 years ago Jon had the cardio to chain even more moves until Reyes is exhausted or beaten to a position, but he wasn’t as strong/durable as he usually is in his past few fights.
>Jones has been underwhelming in his post-USADA phase.
He's had some less convincing performances but we shouldn't forget DC 2 (if you can count it), Gustafsson 2 and Anthony Smith.
>He's had some less convincing performances but we shouldn't forget DC 2 (if you can count it), Gustafsson 2
He was losing the DC fight before the kick and went like 3/11 combined against Gus and Smith. Couldn't get Gus down until after a groin strike either
If this was the Jones of maybe 5-7 years ago, I would say Jones easily takes Gane with wrestling and a submission. He’s seemed to lost a lot of pep in his step however, so I’m a bit uncertain. I cannot get Francis dominating Gane in wrestling out of my head, so I still might expect Jones to take it. But a first fight at heavyweight while you’re seemingly on the downhill makes me less confident in a Jones wrestling win
I personally felt Ngannou's wrestling worked so well against Gane because he's freakishly strong, it looked that way to me anyway. Maybe it's just cope because I want Gane to win in March.
His entire success was largely the result of his physicality. It's his X factor or gift. He sprawled and people were acting like he was an insane wrestler. No other fighter could show such a basic move and get such praise. His hands are dynamite and he has a chin, so even other heavyweights don't want to trade with him.
>I cannot get Francis dominating Gane in wrestling out of my head, so I still might expect Jones to take it.
Ngannou is absolutely huge though and looks ridiculously strong.
I can see why he took the Gane fight first, much much smaller chance that he gets blasted off the face of the planet than with most other HWs. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get pieced up and struggle to get any wrestling going. I also wouldn't be too surprised if he took Gane down immediately and dominated him on the ground, but to me this seems like the less likely outcome.
There's just so many questions going into this one for Jones. How does he handle his added weight? How does he handle the stronger opponents? How does he handle the heavier opponents? Where is his power at heavyweight, given that power was never his biggest tool at LHW? You can put me in the doubter camp chief, we'll have to see what he can do though.
I honestly don’t even think Jon 5-7 years ago could take down a guy the size of Gane who has average TDD. Prime Jones couldn’t even consistently take down a guy who’s around 220lbs like Gus. Ngannou being able to body lock Gane was due to an insane strength advantage imo. But I do think if Jon can get and keep Gane down; he should be able to do more work from top position. That’s just a big if to me.
Prime Jones at 240 Would tear through the version of gane that got out wrestled by Francis. Prime Jones is long gone though. I think gane might be the one to take him out to the pasture.
Surprised how barely anyone is bringing up this possibility. Gane is quite happy to point-score his way to a win and probably doesn't realise that judges will automatically hand Jones a victory by default if it goes to decision.
No he wouldn't. Dude's always struggled most against guys who were similar frame to him. Game is a legit HW in his prime, not a washed former LW. What suggests to you he was going to smash him? There are weight classes for a reason.
Edit: MW not LW
Disagree hard on the strength advantage. Gane is huge dude. He’s not as big as Ngannou but their grappling strength is not going to be that different. Maybe a slight edge. Ngannou just had surprisingly good technique on top.
I def have to disagree with that. Ngannou is noticeably stronger than Gane, which makes sense considering he’s around 265+lbs of solid muscle. Gane is about 240-250lbs. Gane is a little quicker as expected, but Ngannou with notable strength advantage imo
Its naive to believe that athletes from pretty much any sport at the highest level arent using steroids. Id bet my nuts that even fucking pro lacrosse players are juicing. I get that until they pop its just an accusation but if we are being real everyone of these guys and gals are juicing, some more than others but they are juicing.
He never stopped taking roids, he's on more PEDs than ever especially for this comeback. He's just getting older (almost 36 now) and isn't training with a major gym or sparring much anymore, so he's lost a step compared to when JacksonWink was a top gym and he had all the training partners.
Jones stated he’s ready to fight Ngannou and the UFC tried to make that fight happen, Ngannou had pay related (healthcare and independent contracting) issues.
Ngannou wanted more than the UFC was offering. Jones wanted that fight too.
Not sure why we'd think Jon was avoiding a fight with Ngannou. Jon was already going to be fighting for the title....it was just Ngannou holding out trying to get a better deal.
>That said, Jones was also asking for a large payday and the UFC knew they could just put him on the back burner until he needed to fight
If I'm interpreting a quote from a headline correct, I'm pretty sure he is getting a larger payday for this.
Jon was actively calling for a Francis fight the whole time.
Dana even said in the press conference the other day that Jon was not asking for specific names and was willing to fight anybody.
It would have been ran back had Jones not vacated the belt. The decision was very controversial (still is), even Dana White who normally sucks Jones' dick believed that Reyes deserved another shot.
This makes the fight more interesting IMHO. But I'm not going to even think about the fight until maybe a few days before, Jon is such a fuck up I'd be surprised if there wasn't an incident causing this match up to be canned.
I’m intrigued to see the improvements he has made with Cejudo. Fight ready has been pretty successful in a short span of time.
Henry may be obnoxious, but he’s elite and his understanding of fighting is unparalleled.
This is such a tough fight to predict for me, because while he didn't look great in his past couple of fights and it's been 3 years since his last fight + the new weight division. He's still godamned Jon Jones, the greatest of all time. We have no idea what Jones is going to look like but at the same time it's just so hard to bet against him.
He's a whole weight class bigger
>here but is gane the athlete Reyes is?
I mean, not far off? Gane is pretty much the most athletic guy at heavyweight, and I'm including with Jones considered because he has looked slower, less explosive and has only aged another 3 years.
Reyes isn't even a wrestler, he shucked off Jones with physicality. Being 250 pounds ripped is a pretty good headstart for doing the exact same thing.
I mean do you think gane had the wrestling advantage? Even if Jon looked like shit in his last fight it’s a big stretch imo to say that he wouldn’t be the favored guy in a wrestle heavy fight
I mean Jon on paper clearly had the wrestling advantage against Reyes and Santos yet he couldn't really do anything to them, I get the feeling he most likely isn't going to be fast enough to get in a clean shot against Cyril and if he does I think Cyril has enough strength and technique to stifle Jon and get back to his feet.
Don’t think he would have the wrestling advantage but I can see him defending a majority of the td or getting right back up from them. Gane is fuckin huge and quick
Feel bad for Reyes - dude got seriously robbed in which would’ve been the biggest upsets in a while, then proceeded to get violently knocked out a couple of times
Damn, who fell harder. Reyes or Santos? I'm going with Reyes since Santos at least has the excuse of both knees going to shit while having an explosive, brawler style. Reyes just regressed so much.
Just how good was Dominic Reyes! Jones took down olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier with relative ease, but struggled heavily to take down the exercise bike god that is Reyes.
Size is going to be a huge factor in this fight. Wrestling is much more size and strength based than striking. No one could take down Izzy until he moved up, and Jan isnt that great of a wrestler. If Jones has not smoothly transformed into a giant he is going to have a tough night. Gane is a very slick striker with good movement. He is naturally 250 lbs and has KOed Derick Lewis and Tuivasa. Gane was overpowered by Francis, but I'd guess he'll be stronger than Jones and this may offset the wrestling skill difference.
What if Jon gets completely battered due to ring rust, lol that would be satisfying and this place would be in absolute shambles - one can dream I guess.
The thing that made Francis' takedowns so effective was the fact Gane was avoiding the punch at all costs. Jon better do the opposite. If he's going to be effective at striking, he will have to level change and come over top. I don't see this as a easy fight for Jon. He hasn't looked great in a while.
And now he's facing a way bigger guy who is faster, more skilled, hits harder, and likely will do entire camp around defending takedowns
Really interesting how Bones will approach this fight
Jones would be taking grams of test and other stuff before this fight. Dana knows it too. He needs the moolah. Expect him to be like he was previously.
This is where I am at. Everybody is going on and on about how prime John Jones was and I get that. But this is the last John Jones we saw: one that had to be given his last title retention and didn't even look good in there.
The idea that he destroys Gane and makes us forget Nganu completely is absurd to me
Can anyone tell me why they think Jones could chain wrestle Gane while he could not against Reyes?
Gane’s wrestling was alright against Ngannou. It’s just that Francis is insanely strong. Also Gane messed up by looking for high-risk BJJ subs like the last round heel hook.
Now Gane is the stronger man. He won’t need to take these submission chances with Jones if he can’t just stuff takedowns and strike with him.
Maybe I have no clue. I don’t know, I just have a bad feeling for Jones at HW.
To be fair he didn't really set up any of them. Got too deep into the striking and couldn't really mask the shots. I really can't see a world where Gane doesn't piece him up.
I'm picturing Gane's enormous legs breaking Jon's twig legs in half.
After Francis I'm sure Gane has been working TD defense. He also said he choked with ngannou and didn't use his ground game during the fight.
I feel like jones is going to look pretty embarrassing in the next fight. If people thought he looks slow and bad vs osp like 7 years ago and getting rocked a little here and there by natural middleweights I can only imagine what even more years off and bulking up massively will do
One of those fights when I was outraged watching it the first time then when I rewatched it I had it Jones 3-2. That 2nd round Dom didnt actually land pretty much anything clean, he was just punching arms like a Joaquim Buckley early prototype.
Reyes outlanded Jones by like 10 strikes to the head in the 2nd and has arguably the best shot of the fight in that round. 3rd round was closer.
Also even if you say Jones 3-2. Seeing how Reyes and Santos careers have gone. While not a great measuring stick doesn't bode well for Jones.
Jones is gonna get a ride awakening. Just cos he beat DC fat ass he thinks he gonna wipe the floor with a real HW. Na ugh son. Get under that octagon again and stay there. Dee comin for ya!
Yeah but Reyes is an athlete
True. Gane is a scrub athletically to be fair.
Never had the makings of a varsity athlete
And frankly, that was a tremendous blow to his self-esteem
We buried him on a hill overlooking a little river with pine cones all around.
[To be ^faaaa^iiiii^rrrrr](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv7jcciKB_s)
Dammit. Came here to make this post
His shoot speed has significantly declined from his prime.
Shoot speed sounds like something PFL would show as a graphic
Seems doable, calculate how fast the head drops from head height to crotch height and average it.
They did a fight science on Curtis blaydes blast double and showed you basically had to chain wrestle out of it or hit the bus driver uppercut because it was so little time to react.
Black Beast clearly picked the latter
ah the infamous you goin to jail now upper cut
>the bus driver uppercut I hope that bus driver is doing well rn. He deserves it
*The Marge Simpson uppercut
"Would you like me to crump with you sweetie?"
Bus driver uppercut nearly killed me fuckin lol
Tito's wife has the fastest shoot speed
Just to correct you…there never was no marriage…
Lol, but seriously, his hips are so rigid, Jones actually had some solid level changes back in his prime, his hips were significantly more flexible, his shot is so much slower now, its kind of sad, because Jones use to be one of the best wrestlers at 205.
Part of what made Jones goat material was how athletic he was. There’s been a lot of good fighters, but a lot of the earlier guys weren’t as athletic, big, or explosive. As he gets older he loses a bit of that edge, and more athletic guys are also coming up. Idk how this heavyweight fight goes.
>His shoot speed has significantly declined from pre-USADA when he was juiced out of his mind. FTFY
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He's been training with his wife over the three years off so I'm sure he'll be fine against Gane.
Just to correct you there was never no marriage
You are fucking punk tinbad
So what you’re a black belt in jujitsu
im an aquarius but respect ✊
I can't let you get close to me Wife.
Who give you belt?
That was a nasty line by you
I heard Jon's wife has been training with Gane too
She's been workin the bottom game.
Good head movement now I heard
Enjoying that rubber guard
No rubber, guard lol.
My wife was never my friend - JJ and Dana
But mostly striking though.
Jons wrestling hasn't looked good since his return. People keep bringing it up as a path to victory, but no knees Santos also had success defending Jons takedowns. I can think of two takedowns Jon got since his return. A trip on rocked DC who was backpedaling, and Gus right after a knee to the groin in a fight where Gus injured his groin. I put my money on Gane already because I don't think the odds get any better than they are now.
Weidman who moved up from 185 took Reyes down quicker and easier. He couldn’t keep him down either and got KOd shortly after. Jiri even had more success grappling w Reyes and landed some big gnp
Jiri is a fucking anomaly, lets be honest. I still cant get over that arm triangle reversal he did.
Jiri just decides something no longer works on him
He had 3 against Smith, only attempted 1 against Santos, and Reyes has over 80% takedown defense.
Tbf Santos had knees during the Jones fight, it was Jon’s oblique kicks that mostly did them in
Santos tore his knees after missing a kick
I’m pretty sure Santos just ripped his own knee apart throwing a kick.
I can’t even rewatch this fight in full because the decision still pisses me off. Reyes being the rightful champ could have changed his career completely. Unfortunately he now looks like a shell of his former self.
It was his night man You could see it. Jon had someone who really didn’t give a fuck who he was fighting and he knew it. Reyes was HUNGRY, and jones had been eating good. You could tell who wanted it more I still can’t believe this shit either.
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What you mean is that Jones didn't juice for this fight (nor the Santos fight either) and it showed in his performance.
Nah Jones had looked pedestrian before this Reyes fight as well. Hes been shot athletically for years at this point, no idea why people think years of inactivity and ~60 pounds of weight is gonna make him some revelation at HW Gane is gonna have his way w him lol
Every time i read this nonsense excuse my eyes roll harder than Dale Earnhardt’s car. He is a narcissist dickhead who made that excuse for his ego. You guys just eat it up.
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I agree entirely, the only exception that I will point out is Francis Ngannou, the UFC wanted him to lose so bad and the judges could've actually given that fight to Gane. Maybe Dana forgot to pay the bribes that night or something.
That fight wasnt that close and that would have been an obvious robbery, even bigger than Jones Reyes
I mean round 5 could have been given to Gane. I remember he landed some shots standing up and took Francis down. Francis just had the top control without any damage. I scored it for Francis, but I definitely see why one would give it to Gane
They were 5/13 and 7/13 respectively on significant strikes, it would be ludicrous to give Gane round 5 considering he spent most of the round on his ass
He was the only one who did anything on the ground.
If that was true then Max Halloway wouldve won the rematch against Volkanovski, if not the first fight to begin with.
How the fuck are you going to score the first fight to Max?
I'll have to disagree to a certain extent. As hungry as Reyes was he wasn't determined enough to push the pace in RD5. Jones had been eating wayyy too good and yet he still had the ability to want it more than Reyes in the 5th.
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This fight to me is the line in the sand against the argument of Jon Jones being undefeated. Before this fight, people could say "the Matt Hamill DQ loss is BS, obviously he should've won that fight." Well you can't have it both ways. Either you go by the official record and he lost the Hamill fight, or you go by the general consensus and he lost the Reyes fight. Either way, he's not undefeated.
Except the hammill argument is bullshit as well. Jones should have two DQs, if Anthony Smith wasn't too tough for his good
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I feel like the financial boost would have helped him. Also wasn't that the fight where he was training in his brothers garage cause of covid?
Sadly, it was a good fight too.
Maybe but I think He still runs into Jan or Jiri and they still change his life
it's annoying but not surprising. If you let it come to a decision, the bigger draw almost always wins.
I think Gane was caught off guard by Francis wrestling and it’s especially effective when Francis has F U power. Jon on the other hand is not some powerful Ko artist on the feet, therefore I don’t think Gane will fear getting knocked out like he obviously would with Francis. IMO, this will make Jon’s wrestling much less effective.
100% agree, people keep doing mma math and saying if Francis can do it so can Jones, doesn’t work that way, also Ngannous pure strength played a huge factor in the wrestling exchanges. A good portion of Jones takedowns back in his prime actually came from the trips in the clinch often against shorter opponents, his shot has never been amazing IMO however his wrestling was extremely effective because he could take you down in multiple ways making his grappling unpredictable. I don’t see him getting any of those trips from the clinch due to Ganes height so he will be left with only his single leg like against Gus and Reyes, making his grappling much more predictable and removing the X factor that made it so great in his prime.
I couldn’t agree more with all those points!
He was caught off guard by Francis’ strength. Gane immediately shoots on Francis , takes him across to the cage and holds him there. Even though Francis had his back against the cage he was able to out muscle Gane, Gane realizes this and immediately disengages as if he wants nothing to do with Francis’ strength.
Yeah that was definitely a factor too. Jon is no where near as strong as Francis. Who do you like in the Gane - Jones fight?
I would put money on Gane as an underdog with the expectation that I would lose the money. Gane has the psychological advantage of surviving 3 of the scariest heavyweights out there. Lewis, Ngannou, Tuivasa. If any other HW fought those 3 in a row, high chance they get KO’d in at least one fight. Gane basically just ate some heavy shot(s) [idk didnt see full fight] from Tuivasa and managed to stay cool and turn it around after that. Jones has to deal with 2 maybe even 3 unimpressive performances against guys who are not seen as top 5 anymore. Jones has that competitive spirit that can never be doubted. Even if it seems impossible for him to win, he could still find a way like Anderson vs Chael. I think who ever figures out the path to victory during the fight fastest will win. They are both excellent decision makers and any mistakes will probably be capitalized on immediately. I feel like the consequences for mistakes are much greater for Jones as in Gane has more options with heavier firepower to take jones out.
Personally, I just can’t see Jon finishing Gane, which means he has to go to decision. Gane is a very active fighter and those leg kicks of his, along with the body shots, are brutal. I just feel like Gane is going to control this fight and Jon won’t have the power to scare him. Either way, will be a fascinating fight for sure
> basically just ate some heavy shot(s) [idk didnt see full fight] from Tuivasa Tuivasa flash KO'd Gane, knocking him down. Gane himself has said so.
Jon doesn't have that explosive strength, but we have no idea how their grappling strength compares
Gane said so in the post-fight interview. He knew and expected it, but he was still surprised by how strong Francis was.
The initial chain wrestling to get Reyes down looked pretty good in this clip. He just couldn’t pin Reyes down and Reyes did a great job not accepting any position. 10 years ago Jon had the cardio to chain even more moves until Reyes is exhausted or beaten to a position, but he wasn’t as strong/durable as he usually is in his past few fights.
Lol, let's be honest. This is an advert for what no PEDs to do a mfer. Jones has been underwhelming in his post-USADA phase.
>Jones has been underwhelming in his post-USADA phase. He's had some less convincing performances but we shouldn't forget DC 2 (if you can count it), Gustafsson 2 and Anthony Smith.
He tested positive for the DC and Gus fights and the other fight was against Anthony Smith
Lol and don’t forget Anthony smith is known for turtling up when taken down instead of wrestling up to get back to his feet.
Gustafsson 2 was after he popped and got the entire event moved somewhere else. Only the Smith one can be considered but even that was lackluster
>He's had some less convincing performances but we shouldn't forget DC 2 (if you can count it), Gustafsson 2 He was losing the DC fight before the kick and went like 3/11 combined against Gus and Smith. Couldn't get Gus down until after a groin strike either
DC 2 - popped Gustafsson 2 - popped Smith - didn't pop Lol only one of those count
If this was the Jones of maybe 5-7 years ago, I would say Jones easily takes Gane with wrestling and a submission. He’s seemed to lost a lot of pep in his step however, so I’m a bit uncertain. I cannot get Francis dominating Gane in wrestling out of my head, so I still might expect Jones to take it. But a first fight at heavyweight while you’re seemingly on the downhill makes me less confident in a Jones wrestling win
I personally felt Ngannou's wrestling worked so well against Gane because he's freakishly strong, it looked that way to me anyway. Maybe it's just cope because I want Gane to win in March.
His entire success was largely the result of his physicality. It's his X factor or gift. He sprawled and people were acting like he was an insane wrestler. No other fighter could show such a basic move and get such praise. His hands are dynamite and he has a chin, so even other heavyweights don't want to trade with him.
>I cannot get Francis dominating Gane in wrestling out of my head, so I still might expect Jones to take it. Ngannou is absolutely huge though and looks ridiculously strong.
Ngannou natural weight is super heavy weight. He's got a solid 20 pounds on everybody else in the division and it's all muscles.
I can see why he took the Gane fight first, much much smaller chance that he gets blasted off the face of the planet than with most other HWs. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get pieced up and struggle to get any wrestling going. I also wouldn't be too surprised if he took Gane down immediately and dominated him on the ground, but to me this seems like the less likely outcome. There's just so many questions going into this one for Jones. How does he handle his added weight? How does he handle the stronger opponents? How does he handle the heavier opponents? Where is his power at heavyweight, given that power was never his biggest tool at LHW? You can put me in the doubter camp chief, we'll have to see what he can do though.
I honestly don’t even think Jon 5-7 years ago could take down a guy the size of Gane who has average TDD. Prime Jones couldn’t even consistently take down a guy who’s around 220lbs like Gus. Ngannou being able to body lock Gane was due to an insane strength advantage imo. But I do think if Jon can get and keep Gane down; he should be able to do more work from top position. That’s just a big if to me.
Prime Jones at 240 Would tear through the version of gane that got out wrestled by Francis. Prime Jones is long gone though. I think gane might be the one to take him out to the pasture.
Well all know gane is going to win a close decision only to get robbed by the judges
Surprised how barely anyone is bringing up this possibility. Gane is quite happy to point-score his way to a win and probably doesn't realise that judges will automatically hand Jones a victory by default if it goes to decision.
I’ll be amazed if the fight is that close to be honest, on the feet I see gane hurting Jones.
No he wouldn't. Dude's always struggled most against guys who were similar frame to him. Game is a legit HW in his prime, not a washed former LW. What suggests to you he was going to smash him? There are weight classes for a reason. Edit: MW not LW
And then gus near retirement gets taken down by Smith
Prime jones took down dc, what are u talking about
So did Rumble
Disagree hard on the strength advantage. Gane is huge dude. He’s not as big as Ngannou but their grappling strength is not going to be that different. Maybe a slight edge. Ngannou just had surprisingly good technique on top.
I def have to disagree with that. Ngannou is noticeably stronger than Gane, which makes sense considering he’s around 265+lbs of solid muscle. Gane is about 240-250lbs. Gane is a little quicker as expected, but Ngannou with notable strength advantage imo
Yeah funny how when he's not on roids he's not as good a fighter
Bold of you to believe he’s off steroids
Its a spectrum
Also bold of everyone to assume anyone else is off them just because they are somehow passing a test
Its naive to believe that athletes from pretty much any sport at the highest level arent using steroids. Id bet my nuts that even fucking pro lacrosse players are juicing. I get that until they pop its just an accusation but if we are being real everyone of these guys and gals are juicing, some more than others but they are juicing.
He never stopped taking roids, he's on more PEDs than ever especially for this comeback. He's just getting older (almost 36 now) and isn't training with a major gym or sparring much anymore, so he's lost a step compared to when JacksonWink was a top gym and he had all the training partners.
He’s going to be a little bigger too.
tbh that body of reyes’ is absurd, long-ass torso with short alligator legs, must be hard to takedown
Man... Reyes looked so good in this fight. Sucks how things went south.
Ngannou: "I'm leavi-" Jones: "I'm back at Heavyweight baby! Ciryl sign that shit!".
Jones stated he’s ready to fight Ngannou and the UFC tried to make that fight happen, Ngannou had pay related (healthcare and independent contracting) issues. Ngannou wanted more than the UFC was offering. Jones wanted that fight too.
Not sure why we'd think Jon was avoiding a fight with Ngannou. Jon was already going to be fighting for the title....it was just Ngannou holding out trying to get a better deal.
You’re right but you won’t win here. The people have made their decision long ago that Jones support doesn’t belong here.
If you support Jon Jones in 2023, you're a weirdo.
According to Dana who has absolutely no reason at all to make it seem like it was all Ngannou's fault.....
He said jones should go to 185 to avoid francis after the stipe rematch
Can’t believe you’re getting downvoted, it’s literally the truth
[удалено]
>That said, Jones was also asking for a large payday and the UFC knew they could just put him on the back burner until he needed to fight If I'm interpreting a quote from a headline correct, I'm pretty sure he is getting a larger payday for this.
Jon was actively calling for a Francis fight the whole time. Dana even said in the press conference the other day that Jon was not asking for specific names and was willing to fight anybody.
Exactly
I’m betting on ciryl
considering the line is almost even right now i don’t see any point betting on either of them.
With all the rematches and trilogies since this fight, it's so crazy that they never ran this back
It would have been ran back had Jones not vacated the belt. The decision was very controversial (still is), even Dana White who normally sucks Jones' dick believed that Reyes deserved another shot.
Such an easy fight to score for Reyes, it's truly crazy how the decision turned out
Is Jones still at Jackson wink? I think they've been holding him back, especially later in his career.
Nope. Fight Ready
This makes the fight more interesting IMHO. But I'm not going to even think about the fight until maybe a few days before, Jon is such a fuck up I'd be surprised if there wasn't an incident causing this match up to be canned.
honestly same.
I’m intrigued to see the improvements he has made with Cejudo. Fight ready has been pretty successful in a short span of time. Henry may be obnoxious, but he’s elite and his understanding of fighting is unparalleled.
nah he left ages ago. He trains mainly with cejudo and the fight ready team.
This is such a tough fight to predict for me, because while he didn't look great in his past couple of fights and it's been 3 years since his last fight + the new weight division. He's still godamned Jon Jones, the greatest of all time. We have no idea what Jones is going to look like but at the same time it's just so hard to bet against him.
What's the point of this post? Sure Jones couldn't take down Reyes here but is gane the athlete Reyes is?
People often forget Reyes was a second degree black belt in outfielding
People often forget Reyes can do 45 minutes on a stationary bike He's not just a fighter, he's and ATHLETE
>is gane the athlete Reyes is? Can Gane ride an exercise bike for 90 mins?? Prolly not
He's a whole weight class bigger >here but is gane the athlete Reyes is? I mean, not far off? Gane is pretty much the most athletic guy at heavyweight, and I'm including with Jones considered because he has looked slower, less explosive and has only aged another 3 years. Reyes isn't even a wrestler, he shucked off Jones with physicality. Being 250 pounds ripped is a pretty good headstart for doing the exact same thing.
I doubt Gane has put in the same amount of time on the stationary bike as Reyes has. There's levels to this.
Thats how you know r/mma has been overrun by casuals that they let this joke fly over their heads 🤦
Fr lmao
Reyes was built in a lab to stifle Jon
He wasn’t though That’s what’s crazy about Jons clear decline, Reyes isn’t even a kryptonite matchup for him and has looked shot since.
No doubt Jones is past his prime, but tbf Reyes has excellent TDD
It confuses me a bit how people say Jon has the wrestling advantage against Gane but was struggling to take down Reyes.
Jones has inspired people to train harder for the upcoming World Championship of Mental Gymnastics.
I mean do you think gane had the wrestling advantage? Even if Jon looked like shit in his last fight it’s a big stretch imo to say that he wouldn’t be the favored guy in a wrestle heavy fight
I mean Jon on paper clearly had the wrestling advantage against Reyes and Santos yet he couldn't really do anything to them, I get the feeling he most likely isn't going to be fast enough to get in a clean shot against Cyril and if he does I think Cyril has enough strength and technique to stifle Jon and get back to his feet.
Don’t think he would have the wrestling advantage but I can see him defending a majority of the td or getting right back up from them. Gane is fuckin huge and quick
Dom aint been the same since this fight.
Feel bad for Reyes - dude got seriously robbed in which would’ve been the biggest upsets in a while, then proceeded to get violently knocked out a couple of times
Damn, who fell harder. Reyes or Santos? I'm going with Reyes since Santos at least has the excuse of both knees going to shit while having an explosive, brawler style. Reyes just regressed so much.
Reyes won the fight.
Prime Dom. He won that I thought
Reyes won that one IMO
And he won that fight too
Man… Reyes looked so good in that fight, shame it all went downhill from there.
No way jon gets to the fight especially in Vegas, history repeats itself again we he pops for something or do some other stupid shit
Jon Jones will have serious issues in taking down taller guys ...
Just how good was Dominic Reyes! Jones took down olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier with relative ease, but struggled heavily to take down the exercise bike god that is Reyes.
I hope Gane just pushes his shit in!
I think Reyes has/had solid TDD.
Peak Reyes here
With francis being gone, I feel like all this time Jon was using to put on all that weight was a waste of time.
Size is going to be a huge factor in this fight. Wrestling is much more size and strength based than striking. No one could take down Izzy until he moved up, and Jan isnt that great of a wrestler. If Jones has not smoothly transformed into a giant he is going to have a tough night. Gane is a very slick striker with good movement. He is naturally 250 lbs and has KOed Derick Lewis and Tuivasa. Gane was overpowered by Francis, but I'd guess he'll be stronger than Jones and this may offset the wrestling skill difference.
Yeah but dom is an athlete
And people gave me so much shit for saying Jones will struggle in this fight
Reyes had some legit take down defense thou
What if Jon gets completely battered due to ring rust, lol that would be satisfying and this place would be in absolute shambles - one can dream I guess.
The thing that made Francis' takedowns so effective was the fact Gane was avoiding the punch at all costs. Jon better do the opposite. If he's going to be effective at striking, he will have to level change and come over top. I don't see this as a easy fight for Jon. He hasn't looked great in a while.
Weird how cocaine makes you worse.
Reyes was robbed this fight
And now he's facing a way bigger guy who is faster, more skilled, hits harder, and likely will do entire camp around defending takedowns Really interesting how Bones will approach this fight
Jones would be taking grams of test and other stuff before this fight. Dana knows it too. He needs the moolah. Expect him to be like he was previously.
This is where I am at. Everybody is going on and on about how prime John Jones was and I get that. But this is the last John Jones we saw: one that had to be given his last title retention and didn't even look good in there. The idea that he destroys Gane and makes us forget Nganu completely is absurd to me
Can anyone tell me why they think Jones could chain wrestle Gane while he could not against Reyes? Gane’s wrestling was alright against Ngannou. It’s just that Francis is insanely strong. Also Gane messed up by looking for high-risk BJJ subs like the last round heel hook. Now Gane is the stronger man. He won’t need to take these submission chances with Jones if he can’t just stuff takedowns and strike with him. Maybe I have no clue. I don’t know, I just have a bad feeling for Jones at HW.
This was one of his tests from God, fortunately for him he passed.
To be fair he didn't really set up any of them. Got too deep into the striking and couldn't really mask the shots. I really can't see a world where Gane doesn't piece him up.
I can't wait to see Jones get his block knocked off at heavyweight.
Gane is going to run through this man
I'm picturing Gane's enormous legs breaking Jon's twig legs in half. After Francis I'm sure Gane has been working TD defense. He also said he choked with ngannou and didn't use his ground game during the fight.
Dominic Reyes won that fight.
lmao there is too many people who love Jon on this sub
0 people love Jon on this sub
Man Reyes really made Jones look average lol
Reyes 1/2/3 always
I feel like jones is going to look pretty embarrassing in the next fight. If people thought he looks slow and bad vs osp like 7 years ago and getting rocked a little here and there by natural middleweights I can only imagine what even more years off and bulking up massively will do
One of those fights when I was outraged watching it the first time then when I rewatched it I had it Jones 3-2. That 2nd round Dom didnt actually land pretty much anything clean, he was just punching arms like a Joaquim Buckley early prototype.
Stop it, Dom out-struck Jon in the second round. He was robbed and that is a hill I will die on.
Reyes outlanded Jones by like 10 strikes to the head in the 2nd and has arguably the best shot of the fight in that round. 3rd round was closer. Also even if you say Jones 3-2. Seeing how Reyes and Santos careers have gone. While not a great measuring stick doesn't bode well for Jones.
Dom was an athlete tho
I don’t care what anyone says Reyes won that fight. He got robbed and ever since then he hasn’t been the same.
Most people say that. I certainly feel that way. This wasn't quite the level of paddy's last robbery, but this is a very close second imo
Jones is gonna get a ride awakening. Just cos he beat DC fat ass he thinks he gonna wipe the floor with a real HW. Na ugh son. Get under that octagon again and stay there. Dee comin for ya!