UFC 128 Fight Card: Is Jon Jones the Next Evolution in MMA?
The Jon Jones freight train seems like it'll never stop, doesn't it?
I mean, the kid comes from out of nowhere and not only does he find a way to beat a who's who of strong opposition, but he manages to do it in a way that you'd only see in the movies or in a video game.
In the eyes of many spectators, this man defines what could be the next generation of Mixed Martial Artists—the "Next Evolution" of fighters, if you will, but in reality, is Jon Jones the "Next Evolution," or the prototype fighter for MMA's new breed of uncaged cage-warriors?
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
I should say so, because in a certain respect, the reality of it all is that it is so.
Humility adds some personality to the fighter, and that just shows class on Jones' part, but in the blueprint of the modern-day cagefighter, humility is irrelevant.
It is the in-cage abilities of the fighter that qualify him to be the prototype.
A fan of Jon Jones you don't have to be, but the way he implements his offense you cannot deny or downplay.
Some call it "being flashy," but then again Muay Thai is a very creative style of vertical-based combat that does tend to be a visual beauty as well as a physical nightmare for anyone on the receiving end.
I'd say Jones uses it quite well, and the same can be said for his Greco-Roman game.
Truth be told, it wouldn't be a strange occurrence if the next generation of fighters in the sport really did somehow did resemble Jones stylistically.
The man doesn't have a belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu—heck, the guy trains in a hybrid combat style known as Gaidojutsu, which blends in many different styles of the martial arts.
What this means, in case you were wondering, is that Jones has trained in a style of combat that makes him such a well-rounded fighter because it sharpens his abilities in those other realms of the fight-game.
As Chris Leben said, you do have to be good at just about everything in Mixed Martial Arts, and so far Jones has proven that against some of the best of the best.
The man is a quick learner and he blends in everything so beautifully to where you would have a hard time figuring out which part of his game was wrestling and which part was BJJ.
Being a master of one trade doesn't work anymore, as the sport has evolved to where once-devastating moves only devastate and demolish anatomical structures every once in a while.
The sport now calls for more styles along the lines of Gaidojutsu, as well as more styles akin to Jones' unorthodox fighting style where there may be a number of creative maneuvers involved in getting a knockdown-—a number that stands as obsolete as long as one man is knocked down or out.
Win or lose against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, there's no question about two undisputed truths.
The first undisputed truth is that there will be more fighters resembling Jon Jones in the cage as the years go by, akin to the comparisons between Jones and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.
Fighters will come and go, but the day will come when it might be a necessary event to be a fighter who possesses a natural ability to fight the way Jones has fought recently just for the purpose of evolving with the sport more so than providing an entertaining fight.
As far as the second truth goes, it reads something like this:
Come UFC 128, it won't matter if Jones beats Shogun, because with what he's done in the cage thus far in his young career, Jones has already set a very high bar for the next generation to follow.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
