Jon Jones' jiu jitsu coach says the light heavyweight champion is still a white belt, and he's not going to get promoted just because he's a UFC star.
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has submitted some very good fighters in the UFC - Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort would be two of them. Both of those guys have black belts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Jones? He's still a white belt, believe it or not. His BJJ coach Robert Tussa explained to Tatame why Jones hasn't been promoted yet, and it makes sense to a degree - he doesn't train in the gi (transcript via MMA Mania):
"Before anything else he needs to learn the principles of jiu jitsu, understand the rules, the philosophy, he has to spend some time. I can't just give him the belt because he's Jon Jones. So, about that classic photo where he's got the white-belt, I said ‘Jon, I'm going to put the white belt on you because you never trained in the gi. You're good as hell, you caught a black-belt in a guillotine and all, but that doesn't make you a black-belt.' So, I want him to put in work.
It's a way of forcing him to put on the gi and take some lessons, the same way my other students do. I don't think it's fair to my students who work one or two years to get a blue-belt for Jon - because he's a UFC star - to get the blue belt without knowing the philosophy, without knowing who my master is. That's how I think and he respects that a lot."
Jones, who has four submission victories overall in his 22-fight career, will return to the octagon at UFC 187 on May 23rd to defend his title against top contender Anthony Johnson.
No comments:
Post a Comment