Jon Jones Discusses Cutting Weight, Training With GSP, Fighting Matt Hamill, More
Posted by Larry Csonka on 12.01.2009
Jones is ready for Hamill...
- Jon "Bones" Jones recently spoke with heavy.com, here are the highlights…
On His Training: Man, the training camp has been going great. I feel really good. I feel faster than ever. I've been really working on my wrestling; as my wrestling strengthens, my ability to chain wrestle has come back a lot. I just feel great, man. I've been doing way more jiu jitsu than I've ever done, way more sparring than I've ever done, working out with guys who kick my butt for the very first time in my career and I just feel great, man. It's the best training camp ever.
On Weight Cutting: There is definitely still some growing going on, but I don't cut much weight. I've decided to embrace my frame and that's why I went with the nickname "Jonny Bones" because if you get the chance to meet me, I'm not that big. I get that all the time – "Man, you skinny! You're not that big in person" and I'm totally fine with that. I'm comfortable with that. You know, guys like Bruce Lee, he never bulked up. Guys like (Anderson) Silva, these are guys that can move and really control their body. I so comfortable with my level of strength and my agility, and a lot of that comes from me not cutting weight.
On Working With Greg Jackson's Camp: I guess it came about because destiny allowed me to fight the same night as Georges St-Pierre three fights in a row, starting off with UFC 87, St-Pierre versus Fitch. Then I got to fight on St-Pierre versus Penn II and at UFC 100 when he fought Thiago Alves. I started warming up with Georges, talking a lot. Me and Georges had pre-fight practice and spent hours, and that's when Greg Jackson, Firas (Zahabi), those guys saw my potential and they kind of pulled me to the side a little bit, had a chat with me and next thing you know, I'm traveling up to Canada and down to New Mexico.
On Fighting Matt Hamill On Saturday: Um, yeah. Whatever he does and gives me, I'll take. The biggest advantage is that I'm sparring more, doing more jiu jitsu, wrestling with guys like Rashad Evans who has great boxing and is three times faster than Matt Hamill, and if I can stop Rashad's shot, that gives me ultra-confidence against a guy like Matt Hamill who is a totally different level of speed. Yeah man, my jiu jitsu is so much better than it used to be. I've been working so much on my hands. My overall MMA game is just way better from being around guys who are just better than me all the time, you know? I went from being a big fish at Bomb Squad to now I'm just another guy and I get banged out every day. It feels good.
