For those who don't know, one of my former teammates with the Bucs, Marcus Jones, is now in MMA and on the show "The Ultimate Fighter". From the day I heard that Marcus was going to go into mixed martial arts I have been of two minds about it. On the one hand I was worried he might get hurt because you see guys get knocked out all the time and seeing as how Jones had never trained for any of this it was likely that he might catch a couple on the chin.
On the other hand though was the potential he would have. Jones is without a doubt, hands down the strongest human being I have ever personally met. I have seen this guy do things both in the weight room and on a football field that were just amazing. Besides that he was always very athletic including being able to do a standing sommersault as a rookie IN FULL PADS.
So I was definitely looking forward to this season of "The Ultimate Fighter" to see what he was working with. He had a few fights around here with some mixed results but it was obvious that he could be a good fighter. But being on that show can portend greatness to the right guy with the right attitude.
Well after he got passed over week after week (probably because everyone was scared of his big ass) Jones, now nicknamed "Big Baby", finally got his shot in the Octogon. It was.....DAMNED impressive.
I have watched quite a few MMA matches but I don't think I have ever seen a guy Jones' size make the kinds of transitions in submission moves so quickly and effortlessly. Its likely indicative of his training with the Gracie guys down here in Florida. But I can tell you that makes him a dangerous opponent for any guy they put in front of him. I actually predicted last night on twitter that me might end up tear the guy's shoulder after socket before the match and about the only thing that stopped it was the guy tapping out so fast.
The only thing that worries me is that Marcus still doesn't look as comfortable as you would think he would doing stand up. His coach Rampage made a joke last night about him looking like a Mummy but its kind of true. He doesn't seem to let his hands go and he also doesn't show a lot of defense to the other guy's punches. That could be a problem if he comes up against a guy who really can throw hands or is a big time ju jitsu guy. With all the power Jones has I would think that his next step as an MMA guy would be to do some ju jitsu training. I love the things he can do with submissions but he is going to need to be able to slug it out every now and then at least. Especially to be one of the superstars in the sport.
And after last night I don't think anybody can dispute that he has the potential to be one of the superstars.
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