Less then two years into his pro career, Jon Jones is quickly emerging as one of the top prospects in all of mixed martial arts. In addition to being a great athlete, Jones is also an extremely intelligent, creative and hardworking fighter with all the qualities and natural abilities necessary to succeed in the sport. Fighting out of Jackson's Submission Academy, Jones is training under one of the most intelligent coaches in the world who should be able to make the most of his raw tools and help him develop the mental game to compliment his natural abilities.

Coming from a strong wrestling background, Jones was a former High School State Wrestling Champion in Endicott, New York as well as a National Junior Collegiate (NJCAA) Wrestling Champion before cutting his collegiate career short by signing with the UFC at the age of 21 - just five months into his pro career. Despite his background, Jones has not relied solely on those wrestling abilities to get the fight to the ground, instead choosing to employ a wide variety of highly unorthodox, but extremely effective takedowns in his MMA game. Jones' incorporates an excellent blend of Greco Roman wrestling techniques, suplexes, and excellent judo throws and trips, all delivered lightening quick, and with power and precision. Jones has also displayed excellent takedown defense, and has proven to be very difficult to keep on the ground if he does manage to end up on his back. While his pure wrestling achievements are not quite on par with the elite wrestlers in the sport, Jones' takedown style is extremely varied and unique and as he showed in his bout with Matt Hamill, matches up very well with the better wrestlers in the division. On the ground, Jones has vicious ground and potential and has shown the ability to throw very heavy elbows and punches from top position (again see bout with Hamill). Very honest in assessing his tools, Jones - by his own admission, will need to continue to work on his BJJ skills, submissions and working off his back in order to continue rounding out his overall grappling game. Overall, Jones has progressed at a ridiculous pace in his very short career and has the physical tools, mental aptitude and training camp to develop into a top notch grappler in MMA.

Just as creative with his striking, Jones brings with him a unique set of skills on his feet that have served him extremely well thus far in his career. A tall and rangy light heavyweight, Jones enjoys a significant reach advantage over most of the division and makes effective use of his jab and lightning quick and very precise standing front kicks standing front kicks. In addition, Jones incorporates back kicks, side kicks, spinning back elbows (which are starting to become a trademark move of his), and effective knees from the clinch all into his regular repertoire, and is quickly garnering attention for his ability to effectively strike from previously unconventional positions. Jones' punches and kicks come in from all angles on his feet, and possesses an overall style that makes it very difficult for opponents to get a read on him. Jones will need to continue to refine his overall technique but displays excellent potential to develop into a top striker in the sport.

One of the most impressive aspects of Jones' game has been his ability to stay unpredictable and keep his opposition guessing. Jones is great at misdirection; he throws his spinning back elbow as he reaches forward feinting a shot for a takedown, and will attempt takedowns from what are considered strong striking positions. That attribute is particularly apparent in the clinch, where Jones has the ability to not only drive forward for a conventional double leg, but is equally impressive at going back across his body with belly-to-belly takedowns, or switching to double underhooks and going right over the top with a suplex. That takedown ability coupled with the fact that he also has excellent knees from the clinch keeps his opposition guessing, and makes his clinch, like his whole game very unpredictable.