Prime Jon Jones vs Prime Frank Mir

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

Has the hatred of Jones and his mistakes really blinded people this much? Mir was slow, had poor takedowns, and did not have the cardio to go 5 rounds. This would be an incredibly one sided fight and an easy victory for Jones.

Don't even see how this is a discussion, Mir would not be able to close the distance and Jones would absolutely not risk giving him even the slightest chance by going to the ground.

 

[legcramp]

Frank Mir by Jones never fighting at HW.

 

[Iroh]

Could go either way. If frank locks on an armbar like vitor did, that arm is snapping.

Just thinking about it makes it seem a legendary moment.

 

[SmoothPies]

"best clinch fighters ever". Hahahaha. How many of Jones fights did he dominate in the clinch where his opponents matched his own size?

It would be easier to list fights he didn't dominate in the clinch. The "own size" comment is kind of irrelevant. Jones dominated Cormier there in their first fight and Cormier just came down from HW as an example.

 

[scottjoebob]

You posted video that shows how it would go .
If Jones thought he could beat Mir , he would've gone up to HW .

 

[mirko>anyone]

Has the hatred of Jones and his mistakes really blinded people this much? Mir was slow, had poor takedowns, and did not have the cardio to go 5 rounds. This would be an incredibly one sided fight and an easy victory for Jones.

Don't even see how this is a discussion, Mir would not be able to close the distance and Jones would absolutely not risk giving him even the slightest chance by going to the ground.

This. All this. I didn’t have the energy to really detail my opinion but this sums it up nicely. Jones matches up incredibly well with Mir as well.

 

[Asahi]

It would be easier to list fights he didn't dominate in the clinch. The "own size" comment is kind of irrelevant. Jones dominated Cormier there in their first fight and Cormier just came down from HW as an example.

I would say it's very relevant since Jones practically made his whole career in fighting smaller opponents. Saying that's irrelevant is like saying overall size and even weight classes are irrelevant. Obviously they're not.

The fact is the few times he faced fighters his size he actually didn't dominate in the clinch, but now magically he's supposed to murder heavyweights in the clinch. What kind of delusional fanboyism is that?

 

[daemusvladornu]

Honestly I think everyone is insane for thinking Jones will do as well at HW. His range and advantage in the clinch is what makes him such a scary riddle. People at HW will be strong enough to compete in the clinch and half the them are just as tall if not taller. And we've seen that he struggles against LHWs of similar size before. So the larger stronger guys won't need to hit him as many times to finish/hurt him. And if someone who's a grappler at HW caught one of his limbs it's getting snapped. That Vitor armbar had it been Mir and he tried to power out of it. It would've been similar to the Sylvia arm break. Am I saying all around skill wise Mir was as good at Jones, fuck no. But if he caught any of his limbs and put it in a hold. He'd be fucked if he doesn't tap. HW grapplers try and take whatever they've latched onto with them.

 

[dog y]

Horsing around?
The guy who got his ass kicked would say that, sure.

Miranda by stoppage. Probably by limb taking.

 

[javjacob]

Honestly I think everyone is insane for thinking Jones will do as well at HW. His range and advantage in the clinch is what makes him such a scary riddle. People at HW will be strong enough to compete in the clinch and half the them are just as tall if not taller. And we've seen that he struggles against LHWs of similar size before. So the larger stronger guys won't need to hit him as many times to finish/hurt him. And if someone who's a grappler at HW caught one of his limbs it's getting snapped. That Vitor armbar had it been Mir and he tried to power out of it. It would've been similar to the Sylvia arm break. Am I saying all around skill wise Mir was as good at Jones, fuck no. But if he caught any of his limbs and put it in a hold. He'd be fucked if he doesn't tap. HW grapplers try and take whatever they've latched onto with them.

This^^^ Jones has terrible striking but a good eye poke jab against smaller shorter opponents. He would get destroyed striking against about any HW. He wont have his size and reach advantage he relied on at LHW.
Overeem, Stipe and Ngannou would put Jones into a coma.

 

[The J0ker]

Hallway Mir is a mythical beast.

 

[JBJ was here]

"best clinch fighters ever". Hahahaha. How many of Jones fights did he dominate in the clinch where his opponents matched his own size?

Not this crap again. At LHW Jones was weighing about 225 fight night. If anything, fight night Jones was slightly on the small side for an LHW. A little on the tall size and absurd reach, but not a large LHW at all.

As for dominating from the clinch, check out his bout against the current LHW champion. While an guard-splitting uppercut or a hard liver shot in the clinch are always fun to watch, that's mostly about bad guard defense, and dominating in the clinch in MMA is usually about beating the opponent up to set up a takedown or a KO shot on the break, or wearing an opponent down by making them bear your weight standing against the cage. Jones's wrecking of Teixeira's shoulder in the clinch was not necessarily visually spectacular, but it remains one of the best, if not the best, examples of an MMA fighter using great clinch-grappling technique that was all about the damage it caused rather than about setting something up or wearing an opponent down - and, of course, Jones did a lot more dominating in the clinch after that, but dominating the clinch is a lot easier once you've already taken away one of your opponent's arms as a trophy.

 

[JBJ was here]

This^^^ Jones has terrible striking but a good eye poke jab against smaller shorter opponents. He would get destroyed striking against about any HW. He wont have his size and reach advantage he relied on at LHW.
Overeem, Stipe and Ngannou would put Jones into a coma.

1) Stefan Struve is retired, so Jones has a reach advantage on every heavyweight in the division.
2) Jones wasn't a big LHW at all - he had a relatively small and always very easy water cut, started his cut from end-of-camp weight rather than post-camp starvation weight, and had a low fight-night weight, making him a LHW sized LHW, or maybe closer to a blown-up middleweight facing a really tough cut (i.e., Luke Rockhold sized). Jones could add on 50 pounds of muscle and his standard camp would still let him make heavyweight without any diet or water cut. He probably won't go that far, but you should expect him to be about Ciryl Gane sized if/when he fights at heavyweight.
3) Jones has always had good clinch and ground striking and used his stand-up striking primarily to control distance rather than inflict damage. His counterstriking wasn't there at LHW and he thought he was good enough not to need to use counter-striking, which is what got Jones in trouble in his close fights, but he has the striking tools to be able to learn to be a good or very good counter-striker, and you can bet that's something he's been working on since deciding to move to heavyweight. If he can learn to be a good counter-striker in two years or less he'll have enough striking that with the rest of his tools Jones will be a clear top three at heavyweight; if he can learn more than that then he'll be even money or better to beat whoever holds the title.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Jon Jones would destroy Frank Mir - how is this even a question? I'm guessing people's hatred of Jones is greatly clouding their judgement.

Jones hits harder, has better reach, more diverse striking in general. He would ragdoll Mir in the clinch and could take Mir down at will with shots if he wanted to. He could probably GNP Mir pretty well.

Jones is just way more athletic, more creative, stronger, longer....also Frank doesn't have great defense and has been hurt many times in his career. I don't see how Frank wins, his boxing advantage won't mean much cause he doesn't have enough power to put Jones away - and kicks and knees from Jones are more damaging than Mir's boxing.