Welcome to the second part of this ‘Combat Course,’ where I analyze various techniques and tactics which could be essential in beating the greatest MMA talent and the most consistent UFC champion of all time: Jon “Bones” Jones.

Please read part one if you have not already done so.

In part one, I examined how to beat Jones’ reach advantage and his first line of defense, specifically:

His shooting stance (both hands down).

His oblique kicks and his sidekicks to the knee

His back kick vs a retreating opponent

Now I will examine how to neutralize his other long range weapons, such as:

His eye jab / palm to the face.

His double arm extending guard

His kicking tactics

And finally I will examine boxing, clinch, and wrestling counters.

Countering the double extended arms

During a fight, Jones extends his arms defensively to keep distance between him and his opponents or to use trapping tactics to attack with elbows.

The worst thing a fighter can do to counter this is to do what Rashad Evans did, extend his arms to touch Jones’ hands.

When that happens Jon Jones will hit his opponent with an elbow (gif). To counter this the opponent has to make Jones pay every-time he extends his arms by low kicking or attacking the body. As you will find out, attacking the body is essential in beating “Bones” and, along with low kicks, is the easiest way to score points on him. The problem with Jon’s opponents is they are constantly trying to knock him out. This is a very difficult task. On the other hand Jones is pretty easy to hit with middle and low kicks. In the sequence below, Rashad kicks Jones forcing him to retract his extending arms:

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Here is Rashad landing a low kick. Notice Jon’s arms dropping:

(gif) Example 2

A fighter can score points when Jones extends both arms. Jon’s opponent just needs to strike and move away to reset in the middle of the octagon. Jones’ legs are easy to hit when he plays tough trying to grab his opponent’s wrists. Sure, these are not KO blows, but you have to remember that Jon is constantly trying to outpoint you and he is very difficult to score points, so you should connect every chance you get. Fighters need to be careful though, Jones’ reach enables him to grab low kicks with ease.

Countering single wrist control

If Jones cannot grab both hands he will go for one. Especially if his left hand can grab his opponent’s right wrist, a spinning back elbow may be coming as you can see below:

(gif)

You may also notice that while maintaining wrist control Jon extended his right hand as if he was punching, then tried to land a spinning left elbow. His opponent needs to deal with the wrist grab. This is a standard “trapping to punching” attack. The fighter needs to disengage and attack, or attack and disengage, then move to the center and reset.

One could also attack with low kicks, which are the highest percentage moves to land on Jon. Ovince Saint Preux on the other hand, used a trapping to punching combo of his own:

In the photos above, before Jones could apply wrist pressure, OSP snapped his hand downwards getting his wrist free, kept pushing Jones’ hand down and disengaged landing a right jab (gif).

Rashad on the other hand pulled the hand free and tagged Jon with a left hook

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Fighters should be relentless in preventing grips and make Jones pay for gripping attempts with punches and kicks. They should not attempt to counter-grip.

Hand to the face/eye jab

As I mentioned in part 1, I presume the eye jabs are a bad habit from Jones’ wrestling days. However, he does this consistently and fighters need to address it immediately. They should not play tough and endure the pokes. Instead they should complain to the referee immediately. Mentioning it in pre-fight meetings, press conferences and interviews could also help.

Jones usually extends his arm while touching his opponent’s forehead or face. He does this to measure distance or to keep opponents away. This has been very effective for shorter opponents but it did not work with Alexander Gustafsson as you can see below, Gus had the necessary reach to jab him so Jones had to retreat:

Technically, the best way for a fighter to deal with the extended arm is to realize Jones’ ribs are exposed when he does that. This is great opportunity for body punching. More about attacks on the body in the boxing section below.

In the photo below, Glover Teixeira used a successful tactic whenever Jones touched his forehead. He just used his front hand to remove Jon’s hand in a trapping motion and used punches to close the distance. It is a mistake though, for a shorter fighter to go head-hunting against Jon Jones. In the sequence below Glover removed Jones’ hand and attacked with a right cross which Jon was able to roll under. A good option for fighters when Jon rolls under is the knee from the half clinch control. As you can see in the third photo below Glover could take the opportunity to grab Jones neck with his right hand and use his left knee to strike Jon’s belly, liver or head.

You can see Alistair Overeen using this very effective knee attack in this gif.

I would advise Glover to not go for the head, at least initially, but to use the same counter he used in the fight to slip jabs, to go for the ribs:

(gif)

The head grab is a like stationary jab and you should treat it as such. The best targets to land on Jon Jones are the ribs and armpit area. In the sequence above, Glover slipped and hit Jon’s ribs with his right hand while loading for the left hook which followed. A better decision could’ve been to fake the left hook (shorter opponents are not very successful in landing hooks on Jones) and come back with another body punch and then a left hook or a kick. Middle or low kicks and body punches are easier to land on Jon Jones and have the added benefit of making him drop his guard.

Another great counter, tweaked a bit for better chances of success is the following:

Glover pushed the hand, landed with a right cross to the ribs (photo 3) and missed with a left hook and right uppercut. Jones made him miss by doing what he usually does, retreat looking the other way. This is always a great opportunity for fighters to land a left kick to the face in the direction of the arrow, or a right low kick sweeping both of Jon’s legs.

Another reason for fighters to treat the extending arm as a jab and not let Jon touch them is he may eye poke them. Opponents should close the distance with the forehead leading the way and not the face to avoid eye injury as it is common for Jon to do this:

Countering roundhouse kicks

As I mentioned in part one Jon does not have very strong shins. He does not like it when opponents check his low kicks (gif) and that is why when it comes to roundhouse kicks he goes more for middle and high kicks.

However Jon uses low kicks and my suggestion is for fighters to proactively check hard using the knee and not the shin. Especially when he goes for the inside leg kick from an opposite guard, using the back foot without punching set-ups as in the sequence below:

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Jones kind of faked a jab (not an adequate fake, in my opinion) and then went for an inside low kick from a southpaw stance using the back foot. An experienced kicker can see this coming a mile away and it is easy to block with the knee. I really do not like this low kick attack. Jones probably hurt his shin in on Rampage’s knee. Keep in mind this move cost Anderson Silva a broken shin:

Every time a fighter gets to hard block Jon’s low kicks he gets a chance to exploit a chink in his armor — and you can be sure there are not a lot of chinks in there.

Counter attacking kicks

It is evident fighters can land on “Bones” after blocking or evading his kicks. They should attack with punches and kicks.

Below, Alexander Gustafsson gets hit with an inside low kick and comes back with a kick of his own which lands with ease.

Gustafsson was also able to land hooks and punches after either blocking or getting hit with Jon’s kicks (gif1, gif 2). Another option can be examined below where Glover got hit with an inside low kick and landed his own right cross:

(gif)

Here is Daniel Cormier blocking Jon’s kick and landing his own:

Fighters should really go after Jon Jones when he kicks as he is (relatively) easy to hit and when he misses gets out of position by turning his back. Below you can see Jones missing with a high kick and completely turning his back running away.

He does this often, both against kicks and punches. I address attacks against his running defense in a following section.

Attacking Jones with kicks

Jon does not check leg kicks too much and they are relatively easy to land on him. Here are six examples:

(low kicks compilation gif)

Even high kicks can sometimes land on Jon:

(gif)

Ovince St. Preux, on the other hand, gave Jon a taste of his own medicine: low sidekicks

Jones is very durable. Landing kicks on him does not seem to cause significant damage. However, keep in mind fighters need to keep up with his point collecting gameplan and be as busy if not busier. The easiest way to land on him is kicks. Especially right after his own kick lands or misses.

Beware though! Jon’s reach makes it easy for him to grab his opponent’s foot. Fighters need to make sure to pull their foot right back and keep their distance:

Finally, as I note in the boxing section below, the best way to land punches on Jon Jones is not to target the head but the body. Here is Alex landing a jab to the body after blocking a kick:

My favorite kick counter is to block a left high kick and attack with a liver punch. This works because most fighters expect a left hook as counter punch. Body punches play a major role in defeating Jon Jones as they open opportunities.

Beating Jon Jones’ boxing deficiencies.

Jon Jones is a fighter who keeps his range when punching and has decent technique. He goes for single or double punches making sure to retreat and keep his distance or get in the clinch when he misses. He gets out of position often and he escapes by retreating, even turning his back or rolling under punches using bad form. The problem is, he does so without looking at his opponent and this is a big mistake in striking. The strike you don’t see coming is the one that knocks you out. If a fighter wants to beat Jon, he needs to capitalize on this.

To chase Jon Jones and beat his running defense you need to be fast. Look at how much distance Vitor had to cover to reach Jon as he was retreating:

Note that to catch him you need to reach the edge of the cage and that is not a good place to be with Jon Jones. Going after him is not advisable as he is very fast and he never runs out of gas.

In order to land punches on Jones you need to go for the closest targets and these are his ribs and his legs. Start investing heavily in hitting them in the early rounds. Aim for more than 30 landed shots in these areas per round. Jon has a huge upper body and it is easy to land while his head is far away and constantly moving.

With proper punishment delivered to the legs and enough body punches Jones will eventually lower his hands and start crouching to defend his ribs and solar plexus. He will also become hesitant in leaning back to slip punches. Body attacks may take time to produce results but are difficult to recover from. Especially liver shots. If fighters commit to attacking the body they will notice the head will be easier to reach. Here are some nice combos employing body shots:

Left jab to the solar plexus to jab (gif)

Fake jab to the body to right cross (gif)

Jon goes for the face palm, Gus throws a left jab to the body to a jab and finally a right cross to the body (gif)

Here is a jab to the body to right cross to jab/left hook:

(gif)

Fighters were able to make him pay for missing. Here is Rashad slipping the jab catching him with an overhand:

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Below Jones attacks with a lead left hook and pays by getting hit with a left hook/forearm strike by Alex:

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Jon often goes for a sloppy lead overhand right and gets out of position. Below Rashad rolls under and almost connects with a right uppercut:

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Another example below, Vitor gets out of the way and connects with a right hook against a left hand superman punch. I would prefer a finish with a left kick in the direction of the arrow (photo 3).

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When fighting Jones, fighters should avoid relentless head hunting with left-right-left combos as this is a predictable rhythm and Jon is pretty good at moving his head out of the way. A classic boxing tactic is to break the rhythm by attacking with double punches with the same hand. Teixeira landed a double left hook (gif) and below is OSP landing a double jab:

(gif)

Fighters can also predict Jon’s roll-unders (which are more like duck-unders) and aim lower instead of going for the head. In the sequence below DC faked a jab and went lower catching Jones as he tried to roll under. Left uppercuts to left hooks would be a great follow up:

(gif)

So, to summarize: when boxing with Jon Jones, opponents should go for the body, use double attacks and attack at the end of his strikes with unpredictable patterns.

Here is Mike Tyson playing around with Jon Jones, but also connecting lightly with a nice combo. Notice he goes for a left jab to the body, a left hook to the body and a short right cross. Sometimes you can find truth in fun and games and Tyson takes the fight game seriously.

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Trapping to punches

So far, the best punch on Jon Jones was landed by OSP. As you can see he went for a jab which Jones slipped. His jab on the way back pushed Jones’ left hand down, getting it out of the way while also measuring distance (ph. 3). This was a great way for Ovince to land a great right hand:

Watch this gif to appreciate the beautiful execution of this technique.

Dealing with retreating and turning the back.

As I mentioned before, Jon Jones retreats often, ducks and turns his back losing sight of his opponent (gif). Fighters could attempt catching him with an uppercut from the back but the problem is he does not just retreat, he runs fast. One of the ways to close the distance as I mentioned in part one of this series is to go for the “Thug” kick as applied by Rose "Thug" Namajunas in the photo sequence below. Rose used the jab, trapped the near shoulder and attacked with a right cross while advancing. She stayed close to the back and was able to land a high kick with the back foot. The high kick was able to cover a long distance. Notice in photo 3, Rose kept following and touching the back to keep closely connected to her target:

Great move (gif). Fighters eventually pay for bad habits.

Countering the clinch

Whenever Jon Jones misses with a strike he usually clinches to escape counterattacks. His hips are so fast he is able to get underhooks after a failed spinning back kick:

Another example is the sequence below where Jones misses with the left hook and clinches immediately:

Generally, it is advisable for a fighter to try to disengage from Jones’ clinches with conviction. Jon will take opponents down or knee them from the clinch. DC and Glover tried to use uppercuts from the clinch. Uppercuts, when attacking a taller opponent’s chin are not very strong and can easily miss. To make uppercuts land like Mike Tyson you need to set them up with body punches. And when it comes to knees the taller opponent has the advantage in the clinch.

In order to avoid counter attacks, Jones keeps his distance when fighters pull back and disengage from the clinch. Below Alexander Gustafsson successfully pushed the underhook down and disengaged. Jones did not try to go after him or land a kick:

(gif)

By disengaging Jones’ clinch, fighters take away one of his biggest strengths as the clinch is his base and he is very dominant when using it.

Daniel Cormier was somewhat competitive in the clinch. Here is a nice counter he used:

DC had underhook control with a single neck tie and tried to drag Jones’ head down to get headlock control. As Jones pulled back and slipped his head out DC caught him with a nice right hand (gif).

Another option I would recommend using when Jon goes for the clinch is the elbow attack Chris Weidman used on Mark Muñoz:

This is a good elbow attack but be ready to pull back and disengage or get an underhook.

Countering the Thai Plum

Make no mistake. Jon Jones is very effective in the Thai clinch. He often uses what I call the “antenna method” to get it. This method gets a hold of the neck from punches that miss their target:

As you can see above Jones goes for the jab and misses. As he retracts the hand he gets a neck tie and secures the Thai clinch landing a knee (gif).

As Glover Teixeira realized, trying to land uppercuts is not the best option when Jones gets a hold of you. In the sequence below he stops trying to hit Jon with uppercuts as Jones lands a knee and just disengages by pulling back. Fighters need to be careful though, as a good counter to the pull back escape from the plum is a kick in the head following the direction of the arrow in photo 3:

(gif)

A classic wrestling counter is the shoulder escape used by DC. Cormier twisted his hips and shoulders putting pressure on Jon’s forearms and snapping out of the clinch attempting to get back control:

(gif)

But all of these options are reactionary measures, and fighters need to stay proactive to beat Jon Jones. Again, fighting Jon in clinches is not a good idea. Keep in mind that when opponents disengage from the clinch and pull away usually Jon lifts the hands up and freezes for a second. Not a bad time to attack his legs or the body.

Staying away from the cage.

Jon Jones outwrestled Daniel Cormier. In the clinch and against the cage. If DC can’t handle Jones against the cage I do not think anybody can. So fighters need to stay away. Jon is also good with his back against the cage making opponents carry his weight.

If a fighter is fighting with his back against the cage and is able to reverse Jon, the fighter should not stay near the cage. He should pull back, get in the middle of the cage and fight his fight there.

In the sequence above Chael Sonnen was able to escape from the cage. Instead of moving away, he tried to punch. Jon went for a takedown, Chael got over-under control and Jones pressured him with his back against the cage.

As if this was not enough, Chael decided it was a good idea to go for the Thai plum with his back against the cage against a taller opponent with significant reach advantage. With your back against the cage, a fighter needs to put his hips at an angle and go for wrist control or underhooks to avoid the takedown. This is what happened:

And remember, this is not the first time Chael fell for this (gif). Whenever I mention this problem with the plum, Muay Thai fans remind me how other fighters like Demetrious Johnson or others are successful in using the plum. Fighting with your back against the cage should be wrestling oriented. Generally, if a fighter gets the plum he needs to have space to pull his hips back to avoid takedowns and load his hips to deliver harder knees. This is not possible against the cage as your hips are trapped.

To summarize, fighters should not go for the plum with their backs against the cage. A single neck tie can give fighters an escape route by pulling the head to the side, but they should always get at least a single underhook. They should not try to strike and use uppercuts without an underhook. Instead they should work to get underhooks, disengage and stay away from the cage. If they get to reverse him or if Jones retreats with his back against the cage, his opponent should not push him towards the cage as “Bones” lays heavy on top of his opponents, making them tired and eventually reverses them. Fighters should just retreat and go to the center of the cage. Time is running in a fight against Jon Jones and he can keep fighters against the cage forever, winning rounds and making them work to exhaustion.

The elbow crank AKA “manivela”

This elbow cranking technique also known as manivela (crank, handle) in BJJ is a technique which can be applied when your opponent establishes a lazy underhook, not pushing the elbow up in an effort to keep it dominant. Mike Tyson made this technique famous as part of his unsportsmanlike behavior in the ring. Here he is against Francois Botha:

Jon Jones goes for it all the time. One more reason to avoid clinching with him. He hurt Glover using this move:

(gif)

Notice Jones pulled the hand back to extend it, connected his hands palm to palm then closed the distance again to crank the arm.

He tried to go for the same move against Cormier but DC was able to use a limp arm escape variation by twisting his hip to release some pressure and place his head near Jones.’ To escape this move fighters need to be aware of it and be fast to disengage, because if Jon cranks their arm, there goes their punching power. Here is DC:

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The struggle to keep it standing.

Word is Jon Jones is working hard on his BJJ. He is submission savvy. One more reason to stay away from the cage is he can choke you with a standing guillotine or take you down where he can ground and pound, cut you with elbows, or submit you.

As I mentioned in part 1, unless Fabricio Werdum drops to LHW I don’t see anyone submitting Jones, at least from the bottom. Jon utilizes a unique game used by GSP and other Greg Jackson fighters, which enables him to land vicious elbows from within his opponent’s guard using a single neck tie or can opener control. And this can opener control is so tight his opponent cannot gain momentum in order to swing the hips for an armbar. Here is an example of using a single neck tie/can opener in a sprawl like posture to deliver an elbow:

Anatomy of an armbar

Vitor Belfort came close and almost broke Jones’ arm during their fight. Let’s examine how Vitor almost shocked the world:

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In photo number 1, you can see Vitor’s left foot was resting against the cage. Jon had a single neck tie and Vitor also had a tie controlling Jones’ posture. Jon tried to take it off by grabbing Vitor’s right hand by the wrist and puling it towards his hips thus giving Vitor the momentum to underhook Jones’ right leg. The underhook combined with the foot pressing against the cage gave Vitor momentum to mobilize his hips, cut the corner and get a pretty tight armbar.

This was an almost successful attempt and Vitor later pulled guard in an effort to replicate it. For his efforts Jones rewarded him by slicing his face with elbows. And these elbows are man-stoppers. No-one seems to fully recover when he gets back to his feet after getting elbowed by Jon. So, my advice to fighters is this: work to get back on your feet. Don’t fight from your back. A submission is rather unlikely, and in the eyes of the judges you are losing the fight when fighting from the back no matter how active you are.

Here is Glover Teixeira escaping from the bottom using an underhook and making sure his hands touch the ground to avoid knees:

Jon Jones will not generally get in BJJ type scrambles to keep you down. So fighters should fight to get back on their feet and go back to the base of operations when fighting Jon Jones which is the center of the cage.

Conclusion

Jon Jones is a great fighter. But in combat sports there is a point when you get slower, your reflexes diminish or your chin cannot handle damage the way it used to. Ask Chuck Liddel and Anderson Silva. Will this point in Jones’ career come soon or in ten years? Who knows? Every fight is a flip of the coin and all you need is to slip left when you should have slipped right to lose a fight. However, fighters preparing for a fight with Jones hoping for a quick knockout, and allowing him to land strike after strike while they are looking for the lights-out punch will probably lose the fight.

To beat Jones you need to make the center of the cage your base of operations, disengage from his clinches, land wherever you can, consistently, resetting to the center of the cage again and again and frustrate him. Make Jon pay for missing and for trying to grab you. Outwork him in points and work the body and the legs to limit Jones’ mobility. Only then the knock-out may come, when you are not trying to force it. You have to do your homework and beat him in all areas, and if need be, win a decision.

Prediction for the fight against Daniel Cormier.

I truly believe only Alexander Gustafson can beat Jon Jones. He has the reach, speed, cardio, and unorthodox style, and above all, he is able to execute a gameplan.

On the other hand, in order for Daniel Cormier to defeat Jones, DC needs to defeat somebody else first: his ego. All Jon Jones has to say is “you can’t keep me against the fence” and DC will try to prove him wrong attempting to do so again and again. DC can beat Jones with the right gameplan, but it should not be the gameplan he used in the first fight.

Jon is too tall and elusive for dirty boxing to work, and uppercuts are not effective against an opponent whose head is not at least eye-level with your own head. DC needs to go to the body and mix things up. Going for the same tactics again and again, trying to force an outcome or prove a point is not the way to go. The objective is not to prove that you are better than Jon Jones in a specific area. The objective is to put him in places where he is not comfortable, not to engage him in areas where he is strong to prove you are stronger. Both fighters have felt each others strengths and weaknesses, and will surely make adjustments.

Unless DC has a similar gameplan to the one I am suggesting here and gets to shock the world, I predict Jones will beat DC in a hard fought decision.

If you haven’t already done so please read part one, especially the general guidelines.

Additional resources: Definition of MMA Specific Techniques

About the Author: Kostas Fantaousakis is a researcher of fighting concepts, tactics, and techniques, and a state certified MMA, grappling, and wrestling coach in Greece. He teaches his unique Speedforce MMA mittwork system which combines strikes, takedowns, knees, and elbows applied in the continuous feedback mittwork system of the Mayweather family. Kostas is a brown belt in BJJ under MMA veteran and BJJ world champion Wander Braga (the teacher of Gabriel Napao Gonzaga).

Follow Kostas on Twitter, and search for #fantmoves. Check out embracingthegrind.com.