Jon Jones left an MMA icon unwilling to spar him anymore after one massive element of his game changed.
Blessed with a remarkable fight IQ and a fantastic array of kicks, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion is certainly an intimidating individual.
In the lead-up to a fight, Jones could trash-talk, once making a frightening comment to Daniel Cormier, before backing it up the second he entered the cage.
However, while renowned for his wild antics, in order to get to such a high level, the American still needed to put the work in inside the gym, where he prepared for his contests by training with some of the best in the business.
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Carlos Condit stopped sparring Jon Jones when he got too powerful
In his prime, Carlos Condit was a tremendous fighter, defeating Nick Diaz to win the UFC interim welterweight championship.
To reach those heights, the warrior worked extremely hard, often sparring Jon Jones, until the legend started to hit a little bit too hard.
In an episode of the JAXXON Podcast, he explained: “I trained with Jon quite a bit. Jon’s a great training partner.
“When Jon was a lot skinnier, before he started to put weight on, before he started to find his power source and really sit down on his punches, I used to spar Jon a lot.
“But when he started to find his power, I stopped doing that.”
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Condit isn’t the only man who’s struggled to deal with the greatness of Jones over the years.
On September 24, 2011, at UFC 135, inside the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, USA, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson challenged the icon for his light heavyweight championship.
Alas, despite a valiant effort from the challenger, his rival finished the contest in the fourth round via rear-naked choke.
However, Rampage has now revealed that he thinks he’d beat Jones, if a certain ruleset was implemented.