Jon Jones: the wrestler who used his whole body as a weapon
A state and national junior college wrestling champion who spent a record 1,743 days at number one in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings: Jon Jones's wrestling, his guillotines, and what a grappler can learn from the way he used his reach.
Jon Jones was born on 19 July 1987 in Rochester, New York. He is often named in discussions of the greatest fighter in UFC history: he spent a cumulative 1,743 days at number one in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings, a record, and was champion at light heavyweight and later at heavyweight. His record is 28 wins and 1 loss, with one fight overturned to a no contest. His only official loss is a 2009 disqualification for 12-to-6 elbows. Those strikes later became legal under revised rules, but the result was never changed.
Where his grappling comes from
Wrestling. In 2005 Jones won the New York state high school championship at 189 pounds, and in 2006 he won the national junior college title at Iowa Central. He left college wrestling to fight, and at Jackson Wink MMA in Albuquerque he added striking and jiu-jitsu to that base.
How he fights
Jones is 193 cm tall with a reach of 215 cm, longer than almost everyone he fought. He used that length in every part of the fight: kicks to the knees and body from a distance, elbows in the clinch, and in grappling long arms that wrap around a neck from positions where a shorter fighter couldn’t.
His takedown defence is 95% according to UFC statistics, and with that he could choose where the fight happened. When he wanted the ground, he got there; when he didn’t, opponents could rarely take him.
The submissions
Seven of his 28 wins came by submission, and five of them were guillotines.
- Ryan Bader, 2011. A guillotine in the second round.
- Lyoto Machida, 2011. A standing guillotine against the fence. Machida didn’t tap; he was choked unconscious.
- Vitor Belfort, 2012. An americana (keylock) from the top in the fourth round.
- Ciryl Gane, 2023. In his first heavyweight fight, after three years away, he took Gane down and finished him with a guillotine in two minutes to win the heavyweight title.
Where he is now
Jones’s career was also marked by problems outside the cage. He was stripped of the light heavyweight title several times, and one win over Daniel Cormier was changed to a no contest after a failed drug test. His last fight was in November 2024, when he stopped Stipe Miocic to defend the heavyweight title. In June 2025 he retired and the title went to Tom Aspinall. He is still in the UFC’s drug-testing pool, but in an interview in October 2026 he said he will most likely not fight again.
What someone who trains three times a week can take from it
- Know your body and use it. Body proportions change how some techniques work. Jones used his reach to control the neck and lock his hands on guillotines where others couldn’t; shorter arms and a low centre of gravity favour other things. The best grapplers build their game around what their body does well.
- The guillotine is a weapon, not just a counter. Jones caught people as they shot in, against the fence and from the top. Learn it from more than one position.
- Takedown defence gives you the choice. Strong takedown defence gives you much more say in where the fight happens. That’s as true in a jiu-jitsu match that starts standing as it is in a cage.