Coaches confident Jon Jones can replicate same success in UFC heavyweight category

The former coaches of Jon Jones, the longest reigning UFC champion in the light heavyweight division, are confident that Jones will dominate also the heavyweight category soon and his “lighter” weight would not represent an issue.

Jon Jones (26-1-1) will make his comeback in 2021 and his next fight will definitely mark his landing in the heavyweight category of the UFC. Jones, considered by many MMA enthusiasts one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history, has dominated the light heavyweight category for several years setting some of the best records including 13 consecutive wins in the UFC light heavyweight division, 8 consecutive title defenses in the UFC light heavyweight division, 11 successful title defenses in the UFC light heavyweight division, 11 successful title defenses in UFC history (same as Demetrious Johnson). As mentioned, now Jon Jones is ready to take over also the heavyweight division and his climb to the title may commence soon in 2021.

In the meantime, his former coaches have been approached by several sports journalists to comment how many chances Jon Jones has of also becoming the king of the heavyweight division. And it seems that all of them agree that it is not a matter of “if” but “when”. According to Brandon Gibson, when it comes to fight Jon Jones is not a matter of weight since Jon Jones has a very high fighting IQ in the octagon combined by impressive skills. Gibson mentioned that Jones has sparred several time with bigger fighter than him such as of Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne and he has never found issues due to the weight gap.

Jon Jones’ longtime coach, Mike Winkeljohn, echoed his colleague Brandon Gibson stating that, thanks to his superb fighting skills, Jon Jones can easily adapt himself against any opponent. He also mentioned that when he was sparring against Arlovski, who is a strong striker, Jones immediately adopted proper countermeasures to avoid Arlovski’s strikes. Same with the power knee strikes of Alistair Overeem: Jon Jones was fighting in a manner able to neutralized the powerful knee hits of his sparring partner.

However, despite we all agree that Jon Jones has the higher fighting qualities, we cannot forget that the heavyweight division is also known for low forgiveness. One single strike can make a huge difference given the power of the heavyweight fighters. Despite the many past controversies, at the end of the day we all love Jon Jones and we truly hope he can replicate the success he had in the previous category.