Whether you were watching mixed martial arts for the first time or you're a long time fan, seeing Jon Jones last night must've had many shaking their heads in disbelief. The 24-year-old is an absolute phenom. Jones dominated and stopped a guy, in Quinton Jackson, who hadn't been submitted in a fight since
Youth was on his side as he was simply too long and athletic for the veteran Quinton Jackson. As ridiculous as Jones' physical tools are, listening to him analyze the fight during the postfight press conference, has me thinking that his mental grasp of the game might be the scariest thing for future opponents.
Jones and his coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn came up with a great game plan and the young fighter executed it almost perfectly.
"Our strategy was to fight long and make each shot count ... use a lot of the low kicks to set up higher kicks and shoot straight," Jones. "You know, Rampage has knocked out some of the best in the sport, but he tends to knock them out while they're swinging hooks. That's why I did a lot of upkicks and straight punches, because he does the best when he's rolling off hooks."
Even at the most intense moments of the fight, Jones is thinking about each move he makes.
"Each round things were starting to slow down for both of us. We were starting to reach fatigue. We were starting to weigh on each other. I just felt after the takedown, his explosiveness didn't feel very strong."
Jones explained why it was time to turn it up a notch.
"I just felt like he was saying 'darnit, I'm against the cage and I'm down.' I knew it was going to be hard to fight out of that position. I knew that position would've took a lot of energy for him to try get out of that. I felt that moment was coming where anything devastating would've been a major blow to the effort to comeback. I just took it."
Taking it included crushing Jackson with a well-placed knee to the chest. Rampage, clearly hurt, said he wanted to protect a cut over his right eye so he rolled to the side. Jones jumped on top and finished with a rear-naked choke.
It was a brilliant performance, but Jones was still in self-critical mode following the easy win.
"It teaches me a lot about my skillset and things I need to work on. There were a lot of times Rampage swung at me and instead of defending technically, I kind of ran like a little girl and turned my back. I need to work on my slipping and evading, and my comfort in the pocket," said Jones.
Does that sound like any other fighters in the UFC? That's same attitude you hear from UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez and the welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre. They never get too high or low before, during and after a fight. Dominant champions have that it factor. It appears Jones and Velasquez have the potential to dominate for a long time just like GSP and Anderson Silva have in an era that's more competitve than ever.
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