Jon "Bones" Jones HW?

As for advanced strikers in the HW division, are we forgetting Stefan Struve? J/K. There really are few "great" strikers in the division other than the aforementioned. Yeah there are the one-punch wonders of Carwin and Fedor, but strikers with multiple "power shots" there are not.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

As for advanced strikers in the HW division, are we forgetting Stefan Struve? J/K. There really are few "great" strikers in the division other than the aforementioned. Yeah there are the one-punch wonders of Carwin and Fedor, but strikers with multiple "power shots" there are not.

Outside of the UFC I would say Fedor and Overeem would fit into this category

Did you just put Carwin's striking on par with Fedor? LOL you are always good for a laugh on that subject.

Arlovski used to be a hell of a striker but it seems like he's lost his groove, if he ever had one

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Quote :

I think some of you are getting ahead of yourself on Jones. I need to see him against guys like Machida, Shogun, or Rampage before I can say he will be a HW champ.

This doesn't make a lot of sense. LHW elite fighters are comparatively advanced strikers, where as HW(in the UFC) is dominated for the time being by the one punch KO, takedowns and ground and pound. Randy Couture during advanced age enjoyed success at the highest level of the sport in the HW division but even the 2007 Randy stood no chance against any of the above named athletic LHW counter strikers. Even if Jones lost to both Shogun and Machida by first round KO that reflects little on his ability to sprawl and brawl on the larger, less well rounded wrestlers that make up the bulk of HW in the UFC.

Only Crocop and Dos Santos are guys near the top of the UFC foodchain that have LHW level striking.

Wolf you are right and wrong at the same time. For the most part anyone here would always say a HW could beat LHW, just like a MW could beat a WW. I would say 99% of the fighters would agree with that also. This is why they have different wieght classes to fight at. Jones won't bully a HW like he would a LHW and you know this.

Everyone is taking about striking now? I don't see any of the Heavies standing with a guy like Jones anyways. This is MMA we are talking about, not Boxing or K-1. This is about Jones at HW period. Read the thread! Some of you are using striking alone to save face on Jones as a dominant HW, or even worse that a LHW fighter is better than a HW. For the most part a heavy will beat a LHW.

Going fishing for a bit. TTO you guys later!

Jones is a freak due to his reaction time and always on his toes and knows exactly what to and where his opponent is. Now is he an anderson type striker? not quite but the guys pulls moves out that most cant even do in practice. via the leg tap and reverse spinning elbow. Most guys are scared to take chances like that and have to set them up when they do but it looks all natural for bones. He still has a lot to learn which is good but fucking scary for the rest.

he will without a doubt be a heavyweight within 2 years IMO

Birdofthad wrote:

he will without a doubt be a heavyweight within 2 years IMO

Yeah I could see him competing at HW also in time. I think he needs to go thru the LHW ranks first.

I love Jones as a lhw prospect, but I can't help but be skeptical of his potential at hwy. Dude's will just have such a big size adv against him. Not that I rule it out, but I am skeptical, I have to see some empirical evidence b4 I begin to declare him a HW champ.

As far as strikers in the hwy division, Junior, Cro Cop, Kongo, AA, Rogers, Fedor, Overeem. There are dudes out there.

He is six five. He has a lot of room to grow.

It's too early for all that talk. He should stay where he is until he's not effective there, then explore stepping down in competition if he starts to fail.

Disagree. He needs to do what his body tells him.

Just seems unneeded. He has been having increased success in a tough division and is on the cusp of being in contention with the bigger names. He has a chance to do big things at the top level. Getting bigger and moving down seems counter productive. He probably will move up one day, but I hope that is far off.

If he moved to HW tomorrow he'd already for all practical purposes be as high or higher up the ladder in that division as he is now. The UFC isn't a video game where changing weight classes means you start all the way at the beginning again.

I know, I'm saying being successful at 205 right now means more than being successful at HW to me, one reason being what you just mentioned.