5 reasons why Jon Jones will succeed at heavyweight

#4. Jon Jones' kicks

In the heavyweight division, most of the fighters that Jon Jones will compete against will find him incredibly difficult to strike against. As MMA fighters become better boxers, they've learned to extend their stances as they step in when they throw jabs. Unfortunately, this further exposes them to the tactics that Jon Jones employs to neutralize his foes. As a striker, 'Bones' is mainly an outfighter who uses oblique kicks, push kicks and side kicks that target his opponent's lead leg.

Specifically, Jones snaps back the knee of his opponent's lead leg every time they step in, intercepting their movement and hyperextending the joint. The accumulative damage of such techniques not only slows down Jones' opponents, but it also damages their lead leg enough that they cannot sit down on their punches to land with threatening power.

These vicious kicks will be especially effective if 'Bones' faces Francis Ngannou for the title given the reigning champion's surgically repaired knees. It will not bode well for the likes of Tom Aspinall either, given his recent knee injury. Furthermore, Tai Tuivasa's boxing-centric approach is tailormade for an outkicker to exploit.

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#3. Jon Jones remains one of the best in-fighters in the sport

Both fans and opponents often mistake Jon Jones for being an outfighter by necessity. Instead, 'Bones' is an outfighter by choice. Many were shocked to learn that the light heavyweight legend is one of the greatest in-fighters in MMA. Due to his base as a mixed martial artist being Greco-Roman wrestling, Jones is well-versed in the clinch and uses a series of techniques when trapping his opponents in the clinch.

Among these techniques is his famous shoulder crank. Whenever an opponent like Glover Teixeira secures a non-committal underhook against him, Jones immediately dedicates both his hands to a shoulder crank, using his considerable height and length to generate terrifying amounts of torque. Besides shoulder cranks, Jones also makes liberal use of wrist-grips to create openings for his elbows and uppercuts. Specifically, the former champion uses a thumbs-down wrist-grip.

The anchoring or hooking point of every wrist-grip is the thumb. So in order to break a wrist-grip, a trapped foe must yank their arm in the direction that the gripping thumb is pointed at. Jones specifically points his gripping thumb downward, forcing his foes to yank their arms downwards and away from their upper-body, exposing their heads to elbows over the top.

Once his opponents start ducking under his elbows, they unknowingly duck into an uppercut or knee. Jones' viciousness as an in-fighter, without even taking his Greco-Roman wrestling into account, means that whether the fight is on the outside or inside, opponents are not safe against him.