Jon Jones has finally admitted that powerlifting probably wasn’t the best way of getting ready for a fight.
When the P4P king had his belt revoked and was suspended by the UFC for his involvement in a hit-and-run in which a pregnant woman broke her arm, he hit the gym in a big way.
The former light heavyweight champion took up powerlifting and gave detailed updates of his new weight lifting regime on Instagram. While he became noticeably more muscular, there were concerns that this new venture may impact negatively on his fighting, the main concern being that the increased mass would cause him to gas more during bouts.
These fears seemed to be realised when Jones looked a little rustier than anticipated in his unanimous decision victory against Ovince Saint-Preux in his return at UFC 197. Although he was dominant, he didn’t exactly set the world alight with his interim belt-winning performance.
He admitted to MMA Junkie that the powerlifting may have affected his performance in that fight.
“I got up to about 238 at my heaviest. I felt great; I felt really strong. I felt I could compete at heavyweight. I think in my last fight, it definitely played a factor in me being conservative and preserving the way I was using my energy.”
“I felt like I was in good shape, like my lungs were strong. I just felt like my muscle endurance maybe wasn’t in the right place, so I think that played a factor in me fighting conservatively and pacing myself a little bit.”
Jones is set to headline the landmark UFC 200 card with a rematch against Daniel Cormier to try to regain the belt that he didn’t lose through fighting. He revealed that in order to be at his best for the second instalment of arguably the most heated grudge match in MMA history, he decided to put the barbells down for his camp.
“For this training camp, I’ve done almost zero weightlifting whatsoever. I’ve actually been working on burning off the muscle by overloading in endurance. So I think you guys will be able to tell during the weigh-ins and during the fight that I look a lot more like I used to look, a lot less muscular, and my endurance feels amazing.”
“That’s one of the No. 1 ways to beat ‘DC,’ to ‘DC’ ‘DC’ by embracing the grind and beating him in the dog fight. And that’s what I’m prepared to do.”
