Jon Jones’ Coach Explains Why Several Layoffs Have Benefitted His Career

Jon Jones’ coach explains why he is staying optimistic about the chances of his fighter after several long layoffs. In the past four years, he’s fought four times with one fight taking place each of those years. During that span, he holds wins over the likes of Glover Teixeira, Ovince Saint Preux, and Daniel Cormier twice.

Now, he’s slated to rematch Gustafsson for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title in the headliner of UFC 232. During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, his coach, Brandon Gibson has explained his stance on an interesting take. That is the fact that Jones has benefitted from having time off due to his suspensions for failed drug tests.

“He’s not getting his brains battered in [during his time off],” Gibson explained on The MMA Hour. “He’s not getting concussions. He’s taking care of his body and his mind. This is such a — at this top one percent, these guys are tough. That’s not an aspect that comes with sparring or anything like that.

The time off where we’re not having impact, where his body’s not getting beaten up and broken down. W, where we’re just continuing to evolve the skill and the technique. The strategy and develop Jon that much more as a martial artist is key. And you said he’s 31, he has a long fight career ahead of him still. He really feels like this time off has prolonged his career that much more.”

The UFC 232 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, December 29, 2018, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET.

Gibson continued by stating when fighters compete several times a year, it burns them out. However, in Jones’ case over the last few years, that’s not been the case due to the limited amount of fights that he has taken.

“If he was still fighting three to five times a year like he was when he was younger. I think that will burn guys out early. I think that’s where you start seeing the guys in their mid-thirties that are slow. That are not reacting, that can’t pull the trigger, that just aren’t recognizing things like they used to. I think a lot of that comes with just the toll of the training camps in addition to the fights.

So just having these kind of pre-camps where it’s just all technical-based. I think has been really good for him. I think it’s going to show in the fight. We had a long layoff before Ovince Saint Preux, and we had a long layoff before the second DC fight. He came out sharp and focused, and new in a lot of ways.”