The Blackzilians have a new wrestling coach. Filling the position after the departure of wrestling legend Kenny Monday, Greg Jones now provides wrestling instruction to the Florida-based fight team.
In Countdown to UFC 178, Eddie Avarez, who fights Donald Cerrone at UFC 178, praises the new coach. At about 1:55 into the video, Alvarez describes Jones as the most decorated college wrestler ever.
In truth, there have been over 20 three-time NCAA champions/ four-time Division I All Americans in college wrestling, all of which are technically more decorated than Jones, but the West Virginia University product’s resume is pretty darned impressive. Jones claimed three national championships in college, and went undefeated in his final two seasons. As a freshman he won his first NCAA championship at 174 pounds in a loaded weight class which included defending national champion Josh Koscheck. As a junior, he earned first place in the nation at 184 pounds, a weight featuring another defending national champ by the name of Jake Rosholt.
Jones had all the tools to earn berths on World and Olympic teams and truly excel on the international level, but apparently he wanted to focus on his coaching career after college. I always found this unfortunate; Jones was so good that if I were to make my own ranking of the greatest college wrestlers of all time, I would place him in the top 20. On the other hand, Jones is a prime example as a great wrestler I would peg as a potentially great coach. In 2002, I was lucky enough to watch him compete from the matside on a couple of occasions, and I saw an athlete with the rare understanding of the sport of wrestling needed to impart his elite skills on to others.
Throughout a college wrestling career marked by consistent excellence, Jones really only had one bad tournament: the 2003 NCAA championships at the end of his sophomore year. Heading into that tournament, Jones boasted an undefeated record, the top ranking in the country, and looked poised to win a second title on the way to becoming the third Division I wrestler to win four NCAA titles. This was not to be; Jones suffered an early close loss, and fell into the consolation bracket. In the tournament’s round of 16, Jones suffered a second and final defeat at the hands of none other than Michigan State’s Rashad Evans, who is currently one of Jones’s Blackzillian students.
There has been no word as to whether Evans and Jones have had their rematch yet.