Winklejohn: Jones can make Machida fight ‘very easy’
Team Jackson coach Mike Winklejohn was recently a guest on Sherdog.com’s Beatdown Radio Show. Amongst the topics discussed were the evolution…
Team Jackson coach Mike Winklejohn was recently a guest on Sherdog.com’s Beatdown Radio Show. Amongst the topics discussed were the evolution of UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and how the champion could fare in his next defense against Lyoto Machida:
Winkeljohn on how much better Jones could become: Oh, he’s going to be scary. In fact I think he’s already got people scared. There’s no doubt about it. He’s an anomaly with his length and the fact that he believes in himself. The neat thing about Jon is you can show him something and he goes OK, and five minutes later, you’ll put him in sparring and he’ll be trying it. He’ll just be doing it. Most of the time he pulls it off. He does the same thing in fights. He’s just a believer in his skills and his abilities, and that’s so huge in the fight game. It’s so mental. You’ve got to believe in yourself and have the confidence to incorporate these moves and these techniques into your game.
On Rashad Evans’ loss to Machida: Machida was kind of one of those puzzles that with Rashad, I think Greg [Jackson] and I had it figured out. Rashad just had one of those nights, bless his heart. Rashad is so much better than that night. … He didn’t do what Greg and I had planned for him to do by any means, and that’s not a putdown toward him by any means. It’s the pressure, the pressure of the fight, overthinking where you’re at, people around you telling you all these other things. They get in your head. Sometimes fighters, they walk in there and the door shuts and they don’t even know their own name. They’re kind of lost. Everybody has those nights. To fight Machida again with Jon Jones, I think it’s going to be great. I know Jon’s a believer. He’ll pull it off. He can make this fight very, very easy if he’d like to. Jon has those abilities.