Greg Jackson compares UFC champ Jon Jones to Georges St-Pierre in versatility

If you want to know whether MMA coach Greg Jackson is concerned about the outcome of a fight, listen for his voice outside the cage. Amid the ambient noise inside an arena and the action inside the cage, it often comes through crystal clear.

Jackson, though, didn’t do a lot of yelling this past Saturday when his gym’s star pupil, UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, faced off with Brazilian Glover Teixeira in Baltimore at UFC 172. Jones was in control for most of the fight.

Over five rounds, the 26-year-old New York native battered Teixeira in kickboxing, in the clinch, and on the ground. He dislocated the Brazilian’s shoulder in the first five minutes. He opened a large cut over the left eye. He willingly backed up and covered up as his opponent wailed away, later telling reporters afterward he was trying to impersonate Muhammad Ali’s “rope-a-dope” strategy.

All of these things weren’t necessarily mapped out by Jackson or his partner, Mike Winkeljohn, who work out of gym named after them in Albuquerque, N.M. Then again, how could they? Jones was making them up as he went along.

With the champ, the team stays away from a checklist of what to do and instead sets up a kind of zoning system of defense so a variety of attacks can be employed.

“The thing with Jon is that you have to gameplan for creativity,” Jackson told MMAjunkie Radio. “What that means is you identify the safety zones that Glover has, and then I leave it to Jon as to what he wants to do.

“Now, the double handgrabs and the elbows are all protocols that we do. Did we specifically say, ‘Do this to Glover?’ Absolutely not. But I never want to put a fighter like Jon in a box; ‘This is exactly what you have to do and how you do it.’ I think that’s a disservice to what makes him great. I think you put him in a position to where he understands what’s going to happen in a fight, he understands he needs to be in great shape, and then you give him positions and let him work and be creative and flow.

“It’s hard to have a definition of a gameplan. A gameplan isn’t always, ‘Do this specifically and do that specifically.’ It can be, ‘You need to avoid these things, and then you need to take control in these certain positions and then flow, and mix it up.’ I think that’s one of the things that makes Jon so incredible is his ability to improv. You teach him the notes, and then you let him do improvisational jazz to his heart’s content.”

Jackson won’t say Jones, who with a unanimous decision over Teixeira extended his title reign to seven defenses, is the best ever. There are still more things he sees that Jones can improve on. But he’s getting closer.

How does Jackson know this? Jones, he said, is showing dominance in areas he previously didn’t. Earlier in his career, the fighter was known for his explosive Greco-Roman throws and his dominant ground and pound. This past Saturday, he fought where many expected Teixeira to have an advantage: in close and in the clinch. Teixeira said afterward that Jones took his best punches and kept coming.

“It reminds me a lot of Georges (St-Pierre), who I was lucky enough to work with for a lot of years,” Jackson said. “GSP had that same kind of (versatility to where) if you shut down his takedowns, he’d blast you with his jab and his nice right hand. He’s very versatile.

“I don’t want to say that he’s the greatest fighter of all time until he’s closer to the end of his career,” added Jackson. “But he’s certainly on his way of being so.”

St-Pierre, 32, stepped away from the sport earlier this year to resolve personal issues and make a statement on the UFC’s drug testing protocols. When he did, vacating his title, he left with nine title defenses to his credit and a legacy as the sport’s biggest pay-per-view star. He may return after healing from a second torn ACL he recently suffered in training. But until he does, Jones holds the distinction of being the most dominant fighter in the UFC, a keeper of the promotion’s business aspirations, and the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world following the fall of now ex-middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

A heavy burden to shoulder, to be sure, which is why some of Jones’ behavior in the cage against Teixeira seemed to run cross-purpose.

In recent years, Jackson has been heavily criticized for encouraging his fighters to avoid risk and win at all costs, valuing judges’ points over entertainment. This theory goes out the window, however, when you look at Jones’ performance. The champ willingly put himself in danger, exposing himself to punches. And while Jones felt the situation looked worse than it was, only one punch from a four-ounce glove could have changed everything.

Should Jones have played it a little more safe? Maybe. But, Jackson said, “That’s not going to get you up in the morning.”

“You have to be able to push the envelope a little,” he continued. “You have to be able to do new things, and morale is such an important part of fighting. So we could just jab and move the entire fight, and we’d probably win, but that’s not fun for the fans, it’s not fun for the fighter; there’s just not a lot in it. So it’s much better to try to push the envelope to see what you can come up with, to use these different protocols in different places.

“Some fighters aren’t like that at all. They want to know, ‘I need to know a, b and c, exactly where I need to be at all times,’ and that’s fine, if that’s that kind of fighter. But a very creative and flowing fighter like Jon, you need to give him strong positions to move from and let him have free reign to do what he wants.”

Right now, Jones is gliding around the octagon, making things up as he goes along. Outside the cage, he is doing that too, to sometimes deleterious effect. But he has everyone watching his next step, including Jackson.

The coach’s main job in these heady times is setting the environment for the champ to do his.

For complete coverage of UFC 172, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.