Jon Jones ran through Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 like a hot knife through butter, submitting the bigger French heavyweight up against the fence with a guillotine just two minutes into their fight. It was an impressive performance, and it seems like he has Henry Cejudo to thank for the setup that led to the quick finish (which you can watch right here).
New video shared by Cejudo of Jon Jones’ last practice on February 23rd shows “Triple C” helping “Bones” with his grappling. Cejudo puts a student up against the wall and recreates a position where he’s got the student’s back and is trying to drag him to the ground.
“What you don’t want to do, because he’s a bigger body, you don’t want to overwork a position,” Cejudo said. “This is where [Volkanovski] was getting into trouble cuz that’s a lot of strength. If you’re going to lose the position or whatever, imagine you have Gane here? Switch position, go to something bigger.”
In the video, Cejudo lets go of his student’s back and switches to a front hold instead.
“Like, know when you have a position lost, the last thing you want to do, Jon, is blow the watts in your hands and your wrists,” Cejudo continued. “You might be in this position here. Don’t fight it too much, especially if you know he’s going to get out. If you know he’s going to get out, bang, you front cover.”
That’s exactly what Jones did 30 seconds before stopping his opponent. He took Gane’s back against the fence, and then switched to the front cover, driving “Bon Gamin” down to the canvas. Soon after he was over Gane’s knees and locking in the guillotine choke.
“Call me Mystic Triple C ‘cause I predict deez tings!!!” Cejudo wrote above the video.
Jones spent several weeks training with Henry Cejudo at Fight Ready MMA in Arizona. While we didn’t get to see too much because Jonny subbed his opponent so quickly, what we did see of his wrestling looked pretty damn tight. In previous videos, Cejudo had praised Jones as a student and how trainable he was.
“Jones is a student of the game,” Cejudo said back in January when the UFC announced Jones’ fight for the heavyweight title. “You can teach him one thing, he comes back the next day and he almost becomes flawless. It’s crazy to see, still, the potential of how great and how good Jones could still become.”
“He’s a man who has the God-given ability, and when you teach a guy who has ability, technique that has discipline like himself, and is willing to learn? I mean that’s what equals a straight G.O.A.T. status. That’s what puts Jon Jones into a league of his own.”
While nothing is official, UFC president Dana White has said Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic is next up for the heavyweight division. It will be interesting to see how Jones fares against a much more accomplished wrestler like Miocic, and whether Henry Cejudo can once again provide some tweaks that prove extremely effective in their fight.