It’s somewhat obvious now, but it’s good to hear a confirmation from the horse’s mouth that the gameplan for Jon Jones to defeat Chael Sonnen was to do to Chael EXACTLY what he does to his opponents… Which is grind them into oblivion. In retrospect, I now understand why Jones turned down Chael on a week’s notice — why even take the chance? But then again, after watching Jones physically dominate a man who usually physically dominates everyone he touches, maybe gameplanning was overkill.
When Greg Jackson explains the way he decided Jones would end title aspirations for Chael probably forever, it really makes you appreciate the level of intelligence this man has. This is what he told Sherdog:
“You always have to remember one of the dictums of our strategy is you don’t necessarily stay away from a guy’s strength. If you feel you can do better at it, you can head on attack it. If you take away what your opponent is good at, if that is no longer an option and your opponent hasn’t layered their game plan so there’s no real plan B, where do you go psychologically? It’s always a good idea if you know your guy can outdo the other guy at their strength to charge right at that strength and basically just break them mentally. You want to make sure you’ve taken away their safety zone [and] you’ve taken away what they’re supposed to do. That can have a very, very powerful psychological effect on people.”
And there is no doubt that psychological effect really did work on Chael, he had nothing for an aggressive Jones, almost to the point where you have to wonder why Bones doesn’t employ that strategy in EVERY fight, considering he dwarfs everyone in his division outside of Gustaffson.
So is Jackson a sport-killer, or the guy who makes the sport that much more interesting? It’s almost like Jordan or Kobe getting matched up with Phil Jackson, what a team.
