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MMA and BJJ greats Jon Jones and Gordon Ryan are currently training together.
It looks like Jones wants to shore up his jiujitsu game ahead of his title defense at UFC 295, as the heavyweight champion has enlisted the services of one of the all-time greats in no-gi grappling to prepare for Stipe Miocic.
UFC champ Jon Jones training with BJJ star Gordon Ryan
In a crossover between two of the most talented and most controversial stars in their respective sports, five-time ADCC champ Gordon Ryan is currently in Albuquerque, New Mexico to help Jon Jones prepare for his UFC title defense.
Apart from sharing a bunch of content of Jones introducing Ryan to his more dangerous hobbies such as shooting guns and driving sports cars, the UFC star also posted a brief video of them doing some light (and high level) rolling.
“Let the good times roll,” Jones wrote in the caption.
How much BJJ will Jon Jones use against Stipe Miocic?
Ryan may not at all have the same style as a wrestle-boxer in Stipe Miocic, but he will definitely be more than good enough to emulate parts of that game and help Jones escape bad positions. Plus, it is never a bad thing for Jones to tighten his overall grappling game, which if his debut was any indication, could be what he will be focusing on more at heavyweight.
Jones isn’t the only UFC champ working heavily with a BJJ star, as the pound-for-pound king Alex Volkanovski also enlisted Ryan’s former teammate in Craig Jones for multiple training camps now against the likes of Islam Makhachev, Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez.
It will be interesting to see how much grappling will actually be shown (or even needed) at UFC 295, but even when preparing for completely different styled opponents, it will never hurt to have all these elite level training partners to round out their MMA game.
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