What martial arts does Jon Jones use?

According to many, Jon Jones is the greatest MMA fighter of all time. He has one loss to his name which was a DQ due to downward elbows. Other than that, his fights are all wins, and very rarely has he been beaten in a single round. So, what makes the former light heavyweight champion so dominant?

Here, we shall look through his fighting style which as you’d expect, is a combination of various martial arts. As well, he’s also earned the reputation as being pretty fluid and relaxed over the years which is a bit of a rarity when it comes to MMA fighting. In other words, it’s fair to say that Jones is an expert in his field and is worthy of being mentioned in the UFC GOAT conversation.

Jon Jones knows wrestling

Looking at his lanky frame, you wouldn’t have Jon Jones down as a wrestler. However, his wrestling statistics are staggeringly good. In fact, he has only ever been taken down once in his career. This was against Alexander Gustafsson where Jones arguably came closest to losing an MMA fight. Since then, he was technically taken down by his longstanding rival Daniel Cormier but Jones literally got straight back up again. For someone with as many fights as Jones, against such high level opponents, this speaks volumes about his takedown defense.

Against DC, he also showed off his takedown offense as well. You’d expect Cormier to be the better wrestler of the two considering he was an Olympic wrestler for the USA. However, Jones managed to take down Cormier several times. Over the years, he has specialized in double leg takedowns, and has even used suplexes in the octagon.

On a similar note, Jones is also fairly solid when it comes to Judo. Sometimes, he will mix things up and go for inside trips as well if he can close the distance. Basically, when it comes to standing grappling, Jones is very versatile. Often, you’ll have guys that only know defensive wrestling but this certainly isn’t the case with Bones.

Jon Jones knows Muay Thai

With a build like Jon Jones’s – he was born to do Muay Thai. Simply put, his long, pointed limbs can cause serious damage…and they do. Usually, this means that he has a superior reach advantage over his opponents which allows him to pick off his opponents from distance. Here, he can deploy calf kicks and threaten with roundhouse kicks from afar.

If they come too close, then he can also deploy his elbows from the clinch or use teep kicks to create distance. Combined with his superior wrestling, this means that fighting Jon Jones is a very difficult puzzle to solve. If you try and grapple with him you’ll probably lose.

However, if you try to out strike him then you will get punished with his Muay Thai. These brutal elbows were on display once again when Jones defeated Cormier who got caught when trying to grapple Jones.

Jon Jones knows Jeet Kune Do

Although Jon Jones has no formal training in Jeet Kune Do, he certainly implements parts of its curriculum. Interestingly, Jeet Kune Do is seen as a bit redundant these days and is taught mostly for self defense. However, as Jones has such an intelligent fight IQ, it’s not too surprising to see him take from Bruce Lee’s style.

Specifically, Jones uses the oblique kick that is taught in Jeet Kune Do. He first popularized this kick when fighting against Quinton Rampage Jackson and has used it since. This is a kick aimed at the knee and if done correctly, can cripple the opponent by blowing out the knee. Jackson went on to say that he felt this move should be made illegal by the UFC due to its brutality.

Another Jeet Kune Do move used by Jon Jones is the eye poke. Although he claims this is unintentional (as it’s illegal in MMA) – the eye poke is also a street move used in JKD. Often, Jones would start with his fingers out in front of the opponent’s face which would lead to eye pokes. Victims of this include Alexander Gustaffson, Dominick Reyes, and Glover Teixera.

Obviously, eye pokes aren’t legal in MMA. However, whether purposely done or not – their effectiveness cannot be denied and has helped Jones win a number of fights over the years.

Jon Jones knows Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Contrary to popular belief, Jon Jones is not a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu belt. This is more of a formality rather than anything but Jones is actually a purple belt in BJJ. He received this from Roberto Alencar at Gracie Barra Albuquerque. Before this promotion in 2019, Jones had been a blue belt for a number of years.

Aside from formalities, Jones is obviously a black belt and has the submission wins to show for it. In total, six of his MMA wins have been by submission, including rear naked chokes, guillotines, and armbars.

In terms of Jones and his BJJ, one fight in particular springs to mind. This would be against Vitor Belfort where Jones was locked in a full-on armbar. However, he somehow didn’t tap and would eventually escape. Following his escape, Jones would then go on to submit Belfort with an americana and nearly broke his arm in the process. A legendary fight, this showed Jones’s defensive and offensive BJJ in full force. Arguably, this was the closest he ever came to losing a fight. He even claimed that years later, he still felt pain from the armbar – but even still, his submission escapes proved too dominant.

Conclusion

There’s a reason why Jon Jones is seen as an MMA legend. This is because he’s able to mix multiple styles and doesn’t really have any weaknesses. As a result, if you have to fight him then good luck because you’ll need it.

If his technique wasn’t enough – then you also have to consider that Jones is also hugely athletic too and comes from a family of athletes. For instance, his brothers Arthur and Chandler had careers in the NFL. Further still, his fight IQ is infamously smart, whereby Jones always seems to know the right strategies before and during a fight. Remember, he has the most title fight defenses in MMA which says it all.

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