In the news|March 19, 2015 11:09 EDT
Jones vs. Johnson UFC 187 Title Fight News: Bones Admits to Lack of Striking Power, but Confident for May 23 Bout
As the top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world, UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones is widely renowned as the "baddest man on the planet," having a virtually unblemished record in 22 fights as a professional mixed martial artist.
Jones has developed into one of the most complete MMA practitioners in history, but one thing he admittedly doesn't have is knockout power.
"He has much more striking power than I do. That's pretty obvious. I haven't knocked out anything," Jones said in reference to his upcoming opponent Anthony Johnson during a recent press conference."
"Rampage said I couldn't bust a grape, and I think that's true."
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is a renowned knockout artist, but when he met Jones in the champion's first title defense, he had no clue how to solve Jones' reach advantage, and unorthodox striking, and takedowns, eventually succumbing to a rear-naked choke.
Jones has cleaned out the division, a number of times, but every time he does, someone rises above as a clear contender. He disposed of Olympian Daniel Cormier in UFC 182 with relative ease"”a fighter thought to be the biggest threat to his throne.
The powerful, and dangerous Johnson is in the same position, being built as the one man who could possibly beat Jones. But the champion is, as he usually is, confident about their upcoming UFC 187 matchup.
"I have a great staff of people around me, really smart coaches. We're not naïve to our strengths and our weaknesses. We'll come up with an appropriate strategy to be successful," Jones said.
As noted by MMA Weekly, Johnson is riding a nine-fight winning streak, and has knocked out three of his last four opponents, the last of which was the man many people thought beat Jones"”Alexander Gustafsson.
The two meet on May 23 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.