What can we take from the first fight between Jones & Cormier?
- Jones looked very dangerous in the first round significantly less so in the 2nd
- Jones had a range of attacks – a knee tap & a left cross, elbows, oblique kicks & body kicks
- Cormier had only 2 go-to attacks, a wrestling tie-up with punches and a right roundhouse
- Cormier looked good in the 2nd and 3rd rounds but tired badly in the 5th
What could be different in their second fight?
Difficult to say. Cormier is more experience at fighting 5 rounds now and at being the main event.
I think Jones may have been on steroids in the first fight. Nobody seems to mention it but Jones & Brock Lesnar tested positive for Clomid, used to reboot natural testosterone production after a cycle of steroids along with HCG and Nolvadex in what bodybuilders call PCT or Post Cycle Therapy. Like Anderson Silva, Jones tried to blame his positive test on boner pills, yea yea.
Machida won the first round of his fight against Jones, quite comfortably, by forcing Jones to chase him down. He stayed well out of range and circled.
He also caught Jones with a substantial left hand as a counter to one of Jones’ low kicks.
Establish an effective counter to the oblique kick?
The low oblique kicks and the side kicks are going to be on show from Jones, can Cormier counter these? Machida caught Jones after an oblique kick attempt and then a body kick in the second round.
The best counter I’ve seen for the oblique kick is to step back with the lead leg and throw punches to the faces of the stepping forwards opponent…
Low Kicks to the Legs of Jones
Please, please can somebody test the durability of Jones’ legs? In the words of Joe Rogan they are ‘almost comically skinny’ but nobody has tried chopping them down. Perhaps the best way to land low kicks is use the ‘dutch style’ kicks at the end of punching combinations.
Change Leads
This also appeared to confuse Jones in the Macide fight (watch that fight again, Machida was winning quite comfortably until Jones’ takedown and big elbow in the 2nd round)
Counter the Knees in the Clinch
Jones landed some thumping knees in the later rounds, which can be a right bastard when you’re blowing out of your @rse and gasping for breath anyway. Cormier could really do with a go-to counter for these knees as well, perhaps block a knee with a knee if necessary, or punish them with an elbow or hook the leg and go for a takedown.
How Alexander Gustafsson ‘beat’ Jon Jones
Close fight, I’d have to watch it again but unlike most people on MMA forums I thought Jon sneaked it. but it was certainly close.
- Gus used ‘the dart’ – punches with steps forward – he threw a jab and then step forwards with a cross changing into a right lead, then a left again as he stepped forwards with his left foot
- Countering the kicks – Gus stepped through a number of Jones’ kicks to land punches to the head
- Rotating, standing double leg takedown – might be a takedown to try:
- Sidestepping the oblique Kick – ah, another counter! See the start of the GIF above. He sidesteps and then uses the exposed leg to capture the takedown
obviously Cormier has a completely different body type to big Gus, so some of those techniques might not be effective for him, but I definitely think countering the low kicks will be important.
Only time will tell who the winner will be. Jones has to be the favorite but he looked relatively poor in his last fight and didn’t look to impressive at the weigh-in, kinda like Seal with a dad bod.
