How to beat Jon Jones the UFC Champion

This is a slight parody as I have no clue, and not sure if these ideas and techniques would work, but here’s the view of a Wrexham Tapout-Bellend

1. Takedowns
Gustafsson, the only guy to take down Jon Jones, did not shoot for a double leg. Instead he dropped his level from short range and turned the corner on a single leg (which kind of looked like a double leg)

 

Other than a low single (think Randy V James Toney); I can’t think of any other possible way to get Jon Jones on his back.
He is so explosive, that despite his tall and relatively thin physique; his wrestling is pretty awesome.
Certainly mixing things up, and fainting takedowns with strikes and vice versa, is a proven way to set up takedowns (and strikes) and might be the best chance of taking Jones down.

2. Smash him with inside leg kicks
As mentioned in the Fighting a Taller Opponent article , the easiest way to bridge the distance, is to hit a taller guy with inside leg kicks.
Against a tall guy with skinny legs – it would be interesting to see what effect this would have. Of the 4 or 5 Jon Jones fights I’ve seen, I’m yet to see anyone really hit him with hard strikes to the legs, or body.  I suppose the same could be said about strikes to his head however, as not many people have landed those either (but all have certainly tried).
Smashing him with leg kicks, might be away to take-away his super explosiveness

3. Counter his spinning techniques
Jones is a big fan of spinning elbows, and spinning back kicks.
This is an effective technique of his of course, but also gives an opening for a counter. Either a takedown, or a kick

He loves using spinning elbows on the break, and spinning kicks when his opponent is against the cage.
He also likes to use the superman punch, and side kick to the body a lot.  Both can be countered with correct timing and movement.  Circling out of the way and smashing him with another leg kick would be my choice

4. Counter stiff arm and jab
I can’t recall the name it was given, but in JKD there’s a standing arm lock that would, in theory, be a good counter to Jones using his reach by extending his arm (and fingers).
To counter a left-handed stiff arm – grab the wrist with your left hand, step and rotate to your right, and thrust an uppercut-style elbow with your right arm, into his arm just above his elbow. Kind of like a dynamic, standing arm bar.
Here’s some other ideas:

I like the idea of pushing the jabbing arm and trapping it against the guy’s chest, rather than parrying the jab. Or just defend and smash him with the inside leg kick again 🙂

5. Overhand Right
This Fedor-esk technique is pretty much default when fighting someone taller.
You’ll have to defend a shit-tonne of stop-kicks to the knee, and jabs to get in range, but this seems the most obvious technique to employ:

6. Learn to elbow on the inside
Jones showed how effective his elbows are on the inside and right in the pocket, when he out-struck Glover Teixeira’s boxing techniques with some vicious combinations.
How can this be overcome? No idea; changing level, or range, but it’s certainly a good idea to practice your defence to elbows, and learn some combinations of your own:

7. Counter the low-kick to the knee/Stop-kick
Jones loves using the “JKD stop-kick”
This can be countered by checking it by lifting your foot of the ground, then stepping forward with the same foot and landing an inside leg kick or a punch to his face

8. Work Guillotine Defense
4 of Jones’ victories have come way of guillotine. He also likes to use, the super-difficult-to -defend Cody Mckenzie style “cup and saucer” guillotine when standing.

Try and pummel your arm in early to defend – this will make it an arm-in-guillotine; which is a lot harder to finish

9. Defend the Elbows from Guard
Jones loves to get the takedown, and use his reach to rain elbows down from within people’s guards. Controlling his posture and staying ultra-active off the bottom is a necessity.
As soon as he postures up, you could attempt a chest-2-chest sweep – but then you could also just fly straight into an elbow.
In theory, those extra-long arms of his should be easier to manipulate and submit than someone like Jeff Monson with short stocky arms.

10. Fake Injury
You wouldn’t win, but this is the tactic I would use to get out of the cage alive.