Jon Jones: Don’t underestimate McGregor’s wrestling vs. Nurmagomedov

Jon Jones, former UFC light heavyweight champion and arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history if you can set asterisks aside, spoke recently with Alexander Lyutikov for Russia’s Allow Me to Interrupt. The MMA channel is Russian, but available to English-speaking fans. Not surprisingly Jones was asked about UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who fights former division champion in the main event of UFC 229 on October 6, 2018 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I believe that Conor McGregor has wrestling,” said Jones, as transcribed by Tim Burke for BE. “I don’t think it’s at the level of Khabib. I believe that Khabib will get the majority of his takedowns that he goes for. Conor, he’s an athlete. He shouldn’t be underestimated.

I think Khabib, his boxing defense isn’t the strongest. I don’t understand why he doesn’t work a lot of jiu-jitsu. If you can take down anybody, why not know how to finish them? He depends on ground and pound and he never finishes anyone with that. Khabib is a black belt wrestler. If he adds a black belt in jiu-jitsu to his recipe, he’d be extremely scary.

Conor McGregor has definitely inspired me to reach for bigger fights. The higher the risk, the higher the reward. That’s my plan, take a page out of his book. And start challenging myself against some pretty scary dudes.

Nurmagomedov and McGregor will have perhaps the biggest PPV in MMA history. Jones is awaiting a decision from USADA following his last anti-doping test failure.