Jon Jones Coach Greg Jackson Talks Vladimir Matyushenko and UFC on Versus 2

Sherdog radio caught up with Greg Jackson (transcription via Fight Opinion) and it's just a great great interview with the man many consider to be the best coach in MMA. Here's some samples.

He discusses game planning with Jones:

Sherdog: How structured is the game plan with Jon Jones? How structured is a game plan with him?

Greg Jackson: "It's structured in a non-traditional sense. In other words, if you are looking at a game plan in a very traditional do-this, do-this, do-that, it's not that way. What I do instead with Jon is I give him four or five, we look at our opponent's tendencies and their safety zones and we give him four or five options off of each one of those and how he puts those together is what you know is going to define that fight for us. So, instead of saying, OK you know stay away from this and do this and that, I say here's several things that you can do off of this and play with him, here's several things that he tries here and play with him, which is very... it's a unique game plan for that kind of fighter. Cub Swanson's another kind of guy we do like that as well. But you have to keep that element of creativity flowing and where other fighters have very linear, I guess you could say, like OK when he tries this you need to make sure to enact this defense or stay away from this safety zone or whatever it may be. It's structured but it's more of an open structure if that makes any sense."

He also has a very clear idea of how Matyushenko could beat Jones:

Sherdog: Is that pretty much the #1 concern? That's what Vladimir does, he puts people on their backs and beats them up. Is Jon Jones fine off his back?

Jackson: "Well yeah, I mean, he's getting really good on his back. I'm not overly concerned with any one part of the fight. I want to watch the pace because Vladimir's just trying to get in there and I think and stuff us, get inside, smother, break it. That's my concern with him just to trying to smother and staying on top and he's going to try to stifle Jon's creativity I'm sure, so we've been working a lot of good inside stuff and you know wrestling and all that stuff so we should be well-prepared for his game plan. I hope, you know. All you can do is hope and hopefully all the things that we've been working on will come to fruition. But yeah I fully expect him to come in, swinging at Jon's head and try to take Jon down and holding Jon on the ground."

It's really interesting that Jackson has such a clear vision of the ways the Matyushenko fight could go wrong for his fighter. I guess that's why he makes the big bucks because the BElitists seemed stumped when Snowden posed that question earlier today. 

Jackson is correct. If Matyushenko is going to beat Jones, it will be via a very ugly decision. He'll need to get inside Jones' reach, jam him up against the cage, avoid Jones' arsenal of judo throws, work the body, get the take down and beat him up on the ground. Easy? No, anything but easy. Possible? Yes, absolutely possible.