On July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada, two of the worlds best mixed martial artists do battle for the UFC’s light-heavyweight strap. In one corner you have Daniel Cormier: current UFC light-heavyweight champion, former top ten heavyweight, and former Olympic wrestler. Opposite from him you have Jon Jones: former light-heavyweight champion, current interim champion, and virtually undefeated pound-for-pound, all-time great. This fight is the sequel to their competitive January 3rd, 2015 bout in which Jones won by decision. Should Cormier win, there’ll certainly be a rubber-match, but if Jones should win, well, it’s likely Cormier’s legacy will be tarnished and he will forever be known as the “second best” of this era. Make no mistake about it, this is the defining moment of Cormier’s career. Will he slay Jones and cement his status as the legitimate light-heavyweight champion? Or will he fall, and be forgotten as an also-ran? And for Jones this fight is equally important. Will he finally reclaim what he believes to be rightfully his? Will he show that he can fight at the same level as before once again? The answers to these questions, as of right now, are unknowable. What we can do, however, is discuss the tactics of these two fighters, their attributes, and how they match up. So, let’s get to it.

Jones vs Cormier I

While the first fight went Jones’ way, don’t be deceived into thinking that Cormier has no chance in the rematch. The first few rounds of the first fight were highly competitive, until Cormier began to markedly slow down. Jones’ working his body over coupled with the fact that Cormier had only fought five rounds once before, three years prior at heavyweight no less, meant that a full length bout did not favor him at all. When Cormier was fresh and able to continually pressure Jones backwards, hack at his legs with kicks, and dictate when he entered the clinch, he won the exchanges. The second and first half of the third round were clearly DC’s best for that’s when he was able to do it the most.

All the same though, Jones clearly won the fight. The first round saw him land a takedown, mostly stave Cormier off at range, and land draining punches and knees to the body. Even through DC’s best parts of the fight, even when losing, Jon remained competitive, kept forcing him to work, and did damage of his own through his attrite body shots and clinch work. The momentum shifted drastically after an eye poke by Jones in the third round and from then on out it was all Jon. DC would continue repeatedly to find small moments of success but these were always short-lived and not comparable to the punishment Jones was dealing him, and the most hotly contested range of the fight, the clinch, gradually became Jones’ stomping ground.

So, why’s the first fight so important? Because it gives us concrete data on how these two men match up with each other, where they can beat each other, and what holes in their defenses they need to shore up for the rematch. But, before we get into that, lets examine the two men as fighters.

Daniel Cormier

Perhaps it’s not voiced enough, but Daniel Cormier is one of the best fighters on the planet. A superb athlete, even though he’s nearing 40, Cormier competed at all the highest levels in wrestling before transitioning into MMA. Wrestling, while extremely physically demanding, is a game of craft and guile, and it is those attributes which have seen Cormier rise to the top in MMA. While other wrestlers abandon their base for their new-found adoration for wildly slinging right hands, Cormier has brought his wrestling with him into each and every fight he’s had. Furthermore, he’s used it to help augment his success as a striker.

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Against Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett, one of the first tests of his career, Cormier used level changes and followed them up with punches. Typically, Barnett would begin to sprawl and, in his haste to stop a takedown that would never come, leave his dome unprotected. A brilliant tactic by Cormier for even if Barnett becomes desensitized to the level change Cormier can just run through him for an easy takedown.

Here, Cormier throws Barnett past him and as he’s turning hits him with a right hook. Turning an opponent places one on a dominant angle from which you can hit but the other guy can’t. Normally, it’s done by moving around the opponent laterally but in Cormier’s case his wrestling, specifically his snap down, is what creates it. A very unique and genius application of wrestling techniques for MMA.

This time Cormier snaps Frank Mir down into a front headlock and lands a knee. Another wrestling technique that doesn’t get enough love in MMA.

Now, rather than using his wrestling to advance his striking, Cormier uses his striking to advance his wrestling. Like Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, Cormier’s ability to move between phases of the fight allows him to constantly stay steps ahead of his opponent and drag them through the mud as he does.

This sequence becomes even more beautiful when how the high crotch was set up is taken into account. Cormier had been tripping Barnett from the head outside single position all night so when he snatched up his leg Barnett was defending it immediately. Cormier knew he would and, instead of expending more energy trying to make the same takedown work, attacked with the newly available high crotch.

Despite the brilliance with which he uses them out in the open, Cormier’s striking and wrestling are at their best together when dirty boxing in close. In his bout with Frank Mir he used his dirty boxing to beat him from pillar to post over three rounds.

Cormier would press Mir up against the fence thereby destroying his ability to punch with power or retreat from Cormier. Additionally, DC grinding his forehead up into Mir’s face, along with being extremely uncomfortable, forces Mir to straighten up causing his midsection to flatten out making it a larger target. Likewise, Cormier’s high underhook exposes Mir’s flank which also leaves him vulnerable to bodyshots. Cormier would get Mir to the fence over and over again and proceed to rail his body all night long. Quality work.

DC would also break away from the clinch periodically to throw a flurry of punches against Mir before grappling with him again. DC is truly amazing for how he constantly keeps his opponents guessing.

Cormier also uses his wrestling defensively. The threat of DC’s reactive takedowns, or being taken down should one of their kicks be caught, limits the offense of and injects a timidity into his opponents.

As Roy Nelson looked to step in and punch, Cormier ducked down and took his legs out from under him. After being taken down several times for initiating offense, anyone is likely to be much more hesitant thereafter. This also serves to make it difficult to pressure Cormier and often results in him being given a lot of time and space to work with.

Once he and his opponent are on the ground, Daniel immediately gets to work with his crushing top game. Like many other wrestlers, Daniel doesn’t mind raining down ground-and-pound from half or full guard. Against Nelson and Barnett, he did most of the damage from the latter. Against Dan Henderson, his best work came from side control.

Most of the fight was spent this way with Cormier putting tremendous pressure on Dan Henderson’s chest and hammering him in the face with elbows and punches. DC makes sure to work the body from top position too, exacerbating his opponents fatigue.

Daniel absolutely batters people from top position. Everyone who’s found themselves below him have paid for it in some way, even Jon Jones.

Jon Jones foolishly decides to pull guard. Cormier seizes the opportunity to land a couple punches. When Jones tries to escape Cormier turks his leg and traps Jon underneath of him.

If, for whatever reason, Cormier cannot maintain top position and a scramble ensues, he can use his crotch grab to take the back of his opponent.

Cormier demonstrating the crotch grab on Dan Henderson. The crotch grab offers a lot of control for the top man without giving the bottom man any opportunity for a switch or to stand up.

Once he has his man’s back, Cormier will force them to carry his weight as they attempt to stand, return them to the mat again, and repeat the process. This is after Cormier has already spent some time punching and elbowing them on the ground. Fighting like this is truly exhausting.

Cormier returns Anthony “Rumble” Johnson to the mat in their light-heavyweight championship fight. This grinding style of fighting is the reason Cormier won the belt. After awhile, Rumble was so tired he could barely defend himself.

Now, let’s forget Cormier’s wrestling for a moment to discuss his boxing, which in fact isn’t half bad. For starters, Cormier almost always leads with his jab. He sets up his 1-2 well with it by once again playing with his opponent’s expectations.

Early on in the fight against Nelson Cormier would pepper him with the jab as his only form of offense.

When Cormier was sure that the jab was all that Nelson was expecting, he began to open up and throw the 1-2. He would repeatedly fake Nelson out for the rest of the fight by pumping the jab, pausing, pumping the jab, pausing, and then striking with the one two.

Against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Cormier was constantly hooking off the jab. Here, the hook lands and would cause Silva to stumble.

Cormier will lead with his right occasionally but is very measured when he does so. Rather than a loopy overhand, Cormier’s right goes straight down the pipe. But no matter what he’s throwing, Cormier is almost always balanced over his hips. Wild lunging is very rare of him. He may not have the best boxing in MMA, but he really does have very solid fundamentals.

Equally important are some of the intangibles that make Cormier great, such as his durability and how coachable he is. He absorbed hellacious shots from Rumble and Gustafsson and came back from that to win. It will take a truly enormous amount of punishment for anyone to put Cormier away. And throughout his career he’s shown how well he can stick to and implement his coachs’ gameplans. Not to mention he’s insanely talented. It was only after the Olympics in 2008 that Cormier began training in MMA, and he made his professional debut in the sport in 2009 with no prior training in any other martial art besides wrestling. His well roundedness is nothing short of remarkable. But we all know he’s not invincible. Kicks have confounded him throughout every step of his career, his footwork still leaves something to be desired, and his defensive craft needs some improvement.

Jon Jones

Standing at 6’4″ and possessing an 84.5 inch reach, Jon Jones’ carries numerous physical advantages into the octagon with him. However, none of those would be important if he didn’t make them matter in every fight. Reach is just a paper advantage. For it to matter anything you have to manipulate it to your benefit and Jones is the best fighter at doing that in all of MMA. His best tools for setting the range are his jab and his low-line sidekicks.

Jones’ jab is a multifaceted table-setter. It gauges the distance, spears opponents as they look to step in, probes for defensive and offensive reactions, and scores points. In his fight with Glover Teixeira, Jon made full use of it.

Here, Jones takes advantage of a lapse in Teixeira’s concentration and prods him with a Jab. There were many instances of this in the fight. Not only did this help Jon score points, it set up more damaging strikes later.

Jones begins to hook off the jab, building upon his success with it.

Here, Jones fakes the jab…

…into an inside lead leg round kick. Between Jones hooking off the jab and kicking off the jab, Glover had no idea what to expect. This is an example of a triple attack: three separate techniques launched with the same, or similar, movement. The benefit of a triple attack is variety, the opponent has no inkling of what to expect and attempting to block one attack leaves them vulnerable to the others. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, Jon Jones is an extremely intellectual, artistic fighter.

He also used peppering jabs to back Teixeira up and to manipulate the rhythm of the fight. This cut into Glover’s offense and allowed Jones to take back the momentum.

Now, as mentioned previously, Jones also uses low-line sidekicks to keep the fight at range. These viciously dissuade forward movement by Jones because they halt advancing opponents in their tracks by hyperextending their knee.

Here, Jones demonstrates it on Vitor Belfort. This technique is genius because it seriously hampers the opponent’s ability to get in range, can cause severe damage, and is hard to catch which means Jones won’t be giving up easy takedowns.

Jones’ elliptical kicks serve the same purpose as his low-line sidekicks. Between his jab and his kicks, Jones’ opponents have a lot to wade through to reach him.

Jones isn’t just an out-fighter though, and his only weapons aren’t those available solely at range. Should an opponent cross the distance between them they still have to contend with Jones’ infighting and clinch, which are some of the best in all of MMA. Contrary to popular belief, being tall is not a disadvantage when clinching. Jones being the taller man allows him to wear his opponents out by bearing his weight down on them much more easily, his knees are better able to reach the opponent’s head, and he has great leverage. But again, Jones’ physical attributes aren’t what make him great. How he uses them does. Besides, his creatively and skill in the clinch game, which are independent of his size, should be lauded.

One of Jones favorite positions when clinching, as shown above with Daniel Cormier, is with a single collar tie with his right arm and hand/wrist control with his other. From here, he nullifies most of Daniel’s offense. Jones can still fold and cover behind his right arm against Daniel’s left hands and his ability to punch with his right is taken away completely. Meanwhile, Jones is still able to deal damage by creatively striking with his left elbow.

Truly a sublime way to disadvantage an opponent whilst you advantage yourself.

Here, Jones does the same, but with a twist. He’s overhooking with his right arm instead and using it to control Daniel’s own right hand. This gives him the same window for the left elbow and, most importantly, increased mobility with his left arm…

…which he can use to club his opponent’s head down into punishing knee strikes.

Jones is able to continually set up these crafty positions by dictating the initiation of the clinch preemptively through his hand trapping as he or his opponent steps in. Again, Jon Jones is one of the most intelligent fighters in the game today. That cannot be overstated. But let us move on from ogling his creative clinch game and discuss his relatively new infighting ability which he used to bloody and batter Glover Teixeira’s face with.

After each of Jones’ flurries he immediately takes defensive precautions by weaving his head underneath and taking cover behind his elbows. And when he’s not striking Glover his forehead is burrowed underneath his chin. This accomplishes two things: Jones’ weight is constantly being pressed on Glover pinning him in place, and Glover’s stance is in ruins. With his feet shoulder width apart and perpendicular to Jones, and having no space of his own, Glover is unable to generate any power in his punches or remove himself from the fence. A brilliant display of ring generalship by Jones. Despite being one of the lengthier people in MMA Jones is the owner of its most brilliant infighting moments.

As you can see, Jones is one of the most well-rounded fighters alive, maybe one of the most well-rounded fighters ever. He’s not merely competent in every range of the fight, he’s tremendously skilled. And he’s getting better. His defensive boxing flaws which saw him get roughed up by Alexander Gustafsson have been remedied. He’s much more composed when moving his head in the pocket and he no longer turns his back when under fire. Likewise, his clinch and close range fighting ability are exceptionally more lethal now than a few years ago. And he still posses that same innately high fight IQ and adaptability.

However, Jones is far from perfect. His low round kicks which used to be so good are now all absent from his repertoire, he still struggles with fighting men his size, and he’s displayed that he’s still especially susceptible to low kicks.

Gameplanning

Now, let us take a look at what each man should due to beat their opponent. For Cormier, the obvious answer is to get in close enough to deal damage, but how can he do that without eating Jones’ oblique kicks, sidekicks, and jab? The answer lies in lateral movement. By circling around and towards Jones, his linear outfighting weapons will become much more inaccurate. This is the same strategy Alexander Gustafsson used on Jones in their title fight and it worked terrifically. Most of Jon’s kicks missed or were easily deflected, which at one point allowed Gustafsson to snatch at one of Jones’ legs and score a takedown. If the same happens with Cormier than we may see his amazing top game come into play. Even if it doesn’t, it’s still an improvement on his old strategy of cornering Jones which consisted of walking straight towards him. This was terrible because it meant Cormier had to absorb punishment to get inside rather than circumvent it, yet he admittedly still gave Jones a hell of a fight while doing so.

Once inside though Cormier needs to dedicate himself to working Jones’ body and punting his legs.

Jones’ obvious weakness for leg kicks on display.

The reason for the leg kicks is shown above: whilst Jones is recovering from them Cormier has a large window in which he can score punches with. Additionally, as the fight goes on Jon’s legs will begin to wear down and his mobility will plummet. The reasons for Cormier to work Jones’ body are:

It will tire Jones out over the course of the fight

The torso is an easier target than the head

Cormier cannot afford to be more tired than Jones

In the first fight Cormier made the mistake of head-hunting too much. In the rematch he must use his energy more efficiently and doing so means not wasting it by throwing every shot he has at an elusive target: Jon’s head. Plus, exhausting Jones this way can make critical takedowns available for DC in the later rounds. With regards to the last point, saying Cormier cannot afford to be more tired than Jones means that Cormier cannot give him the opportunity to assert himself and take control of the fight. In the first fight after Cormier tired out, Jones became more dominant and consequently won and looked at his best in the later rounds. To prevent this from repeating itself, he needs to make certain that Jones is just as, if not more, tired than him. One method he could use to get inside on Jones is by using the jab as bait. Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Duran, boxing’s greatest infighter, would flick out lazy jabs to get his opponent to jab back, slip them as they did, and then hammer the midsection. After DC has avoided Jones’ kicks and moved in close, he can use the same method to trick Jon into exposing himself. In fact it doesn’t necessarily have to be the Jab that Cormier counters, he just needs to draw Jones out and hurt him when he does.

The clinch will be the trickiest part of the fight for both men. Each of them needs to make sure that they are controlling when and how they enter it and be elusive as they exit it. Cormier should throw most of his punches to the head from the clinch, using those thunderous right uppercuts he has.

These were painful to watch and really did a number on Gus.

In the first fight, Cormier had notable success when clinching after forcing Jones to duck down/cover up/weave out. As soon as Jon did, DC was on him with the collar tie and uppercuts, and when they both separated he would hit on the break.

Here, DC backs up Jon with some punches that land. To try to prevent more strikes, Jones initiates the clinch.

Flummoxed, Jones forgets his usual clinch and instead attempt a Thai plum. Meanwhile, Cormier begins to throw his uppercuts, which forces Jon to break lest he take more damage.

Here, DC snaps Jones and flings him past. They both break from the clinch, and while Jones is turning to face DC he gets cracked.

The clinch will still be a highly contested area however, neither man will give it up easily or willingly. For Cormier to win there has to know when to engage in it and when to disengage in it.

The last thing to discuss for Cormier is retaliation. For every strike Jones lands, Cormier should return with at least one, ideally two. He cannot allow Jones to feel comfortable at all or give him any opportunity to get ahead. Likewise, Cormier should be elbowing and kicking Jones whenever he can. It is astounding how many opponents of Jones’ have never used his own techniques against him. Why on earth would you ever concede and entire tool to the other person in a fight? It just doesn’t make sense. Hopefully Cormier has worked on all these things in camp and the best version of him, armed with a brilliant gameplan, shows up on Saturday night.

What Jones should do is the complete opposite of Cormier. Rather than clinching and infighting, Jones should do his best to maintain the outfight. To do so he’ll need his aforementioned low-line sidekicks and elliptical kicks, but especially his round kicks to the legs. The round kicks will serve to narrow DC’s path to Jon, which in turn will make his linear kicks much more effective and increase the ease with which he can keep the fight at range. Additionally, he should use snap kicks to the midsection.

Here, Jon snap kicks his former friend and training partner, Rashad Evans, to the body. While he hasn’t used them as often lately, re-sharpening this tool would serve him well in the rematch. The snap kick comes from below so there’s little telegraph and it is hard for an opponent to catch. This means that Jones can repeatedly pepper Cormier’s body, draining his stamina away, with little risk of his leg being snatched and getting taken down. Plus, the kick doubles as a great maintainer of range.

Jones should very rarely throw the sidekicks to the body or abandon them completely. Should one glance or miss entirely, Jones would be off-balance with his back to Cormier giving him the perfect opportunity for a takedown. He should, however, make liberal use of the left high kick from his southpaw stance. DC has always been particularly averse to kicks and isn’t the most adept at blocking them, be it to the head or body.

Here, Anthony Johnson nails Cormier to the head. Uncomfortability with kicks has been a theme throughout Cormier’s career. Odd. Especially from one who trains with Luke Rockhold.

In the first fight Jones did in fact make good use of the left kick and scored some truly winding bodyshots with it.

Not only did this steadily deplete Cormier’s gas tank over the course of the fight, it also served to keep him off of Jones.

What’s interesting to note about the first fight-and what Jones should do again in the second-is that Jones fought most of it in the southpaw stance. This takes away the head outside single of the left leg Cormier tends to favor which went a long way in stifling his ability to wrestle. Jones also used the uppercut and knee when Cormier stepped in and/or looked to crouch underneath him for a shot.

When you know that your opponent is constantly looking to throw a hard knee or uppercut as soon as you step in on them you become more hesitant to duck down for takedown, lest your head get taken off.

When Jones is unable to maintain the outfight, which will happen eventually, rather than clinching with DC he should instead try to ram him in the head with an elbow. Intercepting elbows done as the opponent moves to clinch are great because while they are preoccupied fumbling around for the right hold they don’t realize that they are running into an extremely hard blow which stands a good chance of knocking them out. Whether or not the strike lands, Jones should immediately break and circle out to establish range again.

In the later rounds, after Jones has worn DC down quite a bit, he should begin to press him towards the fence looking to infight and score takedowns. At this point DC will be much less dangerous due to exhaustion, therefore Jones should force scrambles, bear his weight down on DC, and suffocate him to exacerbate his fatigue, much like he did in their first fight.

A fourth round takedown on a dog-tired DC. This happened several more times, forcing an already knackered Cormier into expending even more energy to get back to his feet.

If Jones can do that, and really beat up Daniel with his infighting, then he stands a chance of finishing the champion in the later rounds.

Parting Thoughts

UFC 200: Cormier vs Jones II, from top to bottom, promises to be an amazing, memorable event, and the light-heavyweight title clash looks to be one for the ages. I don’t know who will win, but the fight will be damn competitive and entertaining. Two of the greatest are going to war, and, for Cormier, it’s all on the line. Do not miss it.