(photo taken from ufc.com)
UFC newcomer Jon "Bones" Jones (8-0) proved to be a threat in the 205-pound division as he defeated Stephan Bonnar via a unanimous decision at UFC 94. The 21-year old was able to dominate most of the fight and he believes that it was all due to his strong Greco-Roman wrestling background. His wrestling has allowed him to bring out the powerful clinch that he has been wanting to expose for a very long time. What better place to show his clinching skills than the UFC??
Here's a snip from Jon Jones as he talks about his recent fight with Stephan Bonnar and on his Greco-Roman clinch:
"When I stood in front in front of him (Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94) and Steve Mazzagotti said “Let’s
get it on,” right away I wanted to let him know that I wasn’t going to
let him just have his pace in the fight. In training I’ve been thinking
about moves I wanted to hit right away. And when I got out there and I
saw that leg bouncing up in the air, I said alright, now it’s time for
me to pull the trigger. And that’s basically all it was, just me not
waiting around for him to fight his fight, but pulling the trigger and
fighting my fight….I think that’s going to be a problem for a lot of
fighters. It comes really natural for people to clinch up, especially
when strikes are being thrown, and big hits are landed. Once you do
something so much, it’s going to be hard for fighters to break out of
that bad habit of clinching right away. The clinch is huge in mixed
martial arts. And right now I have a major advantage over tons of
fighters because I’ve been clinching my whole life. And there’s
definite rules and definite no-nos when you’re clinching with someone
when it comes to Greco. And [opponents] so far have done everything
wrong from the clinch, besides striking…it’s not even that I go into Greco mode. Because it’s not even thought
about or set up. It’s just like, I know at least 20 different ways of
throwing people…Bonnar was doing all the Greco-Roman no-nos."
Click here to read the rest of the Jon Jones interview (props to thegarv.com)
