Joe Rogan understands why UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ physical attributes give him a major advantage.
Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) makes his first title defense against Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 309 (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Hulu/FX, ESPN+) main event at Madison Square Garden in New York.
As is the case for most of his fights, Jones will have a sizable reach advantage over Miocic. Rogan credits Jones’ distance management and sees it posing a big problem in his upcoming matchup.
“Jon Jones has the perfect fighter’s frame because he’s still very strong, he has a lot of muscle, but he’s also long and lean,” Rogan said in a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “So he’s not relatively bulky compared to his weight because he’s long and stretched out.
“If you have a distance like that between where a guy can hit you and you can’t hit him, you have to cross that, and you’re so vulnerable while crossing that. And if a guy’s a good counter striker, and he’s active and he’s long, they’re so hard to get in on. So, a guy like Jon, that’s always going to be an advantage.”
After reigning over the UFC’s light heavyweight division for more than a decade, Jones made his heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023. He needed less than a round to submit Gane and claim the vacant heavyweight title.
“With Jon, if you do get in on him, that’s no picnic because he’s an elite grappler,” Rogan said. “So, he’s going to strangle you, he’s going to throw you to the ground. So like, you’re f*cked. On the outside, he’s kicking the sh*t out of your knees. Jon was one of the nastiest at side-kicking people’s knees out.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.