The link-up between Jon Jones and Gordon Ryan ahead of UFC 295 has many people talking. But how big of a role has he played in Jones’ training camp?
Ryan, a jiu-jitsu black belt and a multiple-time grappling world champion, has been training with Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) ahead of defending his UFC heavyweight belt against Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the main event of UFC 295 on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden. Ryan clarified that he’s not a full-time coach for Jones, but he has been involved in the preparation – one Jones is very keen on.
“I’m not a coach. I’m not a full-time coach,” Ryan said in an interview on “Morning Kombat.” “When I go there, I go there to train him obviously just so he feels what it is like to train with good grapplers, but most of what I do, especially with his training regimen, is teaching.
“I’ll coach him, and he kind of learns differently than everyone else. It’s not like, ‘Hey, let’s work on this.’ His brain kind of fires from movement to movement. It’s not like, ‘Oh hey, let’s work on D’Arces the whole time and after D’Arces then we move on to something else. It’s like, ‘Hey, teach me a D’Arce. Now the turtle question. Now I have a guard question.’ So we kind of just bounce from situation to situation, and that’s how he learns best. So I just come in and if I feel like there’s something he needs to do then I’ll tell him we’re working on this today, but for the most part, I just let him run the practice and creatively have him run through what he wants to learn. He just gives me a general idea and direction, and I just run with that.
“I teach him most of the time that we’re there, and then we do some hand fighting, some wrestling, some groundwork, so he feels at different pieces what it is like. But most of what I do is that I’m there to teach him and to improve upon skill and knowledge.”
Jon Jones is training with the best
Grappler in the world, Gordon Ryan 🥋🏅How can Dillon Danis even beat the GOAT @JonnyBones ?? pic.twitter.com/1WEIlMlg4d
— Sam (@sambladeco) October 5, 2023
The partnership with Jones and Ryan has many thinking. Miocic is not a specialist in grappling, which had many people question Ryan’s involvement.
Ryan understands this criticism but regardless of who Jones is facing, he feels this is just part of the constant search of evolution for an all-time great.
“Stipe, there’s nothing really special that he does as an MMA grappler,” Ryan said. “He’s not bad, but it’s not like he has an amazing ability to hip heist up or an amazing triangle or armbar, or if he gets a mount on you, you can’t get out. He’s kind of just a good, generic, all-around guy. Obviously Jon studies a lot of tape on him, as well. I think Jon at this point is just interested in doing things to improve as an athlete himself. If there was one thing I saw that Stipe did that was dangerous to Jon or would give Jon problems, then I would force Jon to be in those positions. Stipe is not known as a super dangerous grappler. I think Jon is just trying to improve as an athlete.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.
