To the naked eye, it appeared that
Jon Jones was never in the slightest bit of trouble during his 205-pound title-winning performance against
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event of Saturday’s
UFC 128.
Jones dissected Rua en route to a third-round technical knockout at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Throughout the bout, “Bones” seemed to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and Rua seemed helpless to stop him.
However, Jones’ striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, had a different view of the competition from the fighter’s corner. According to “Coach Wink,” Jones had plenty of adversity to overcome.
“There was a turning point after the second round where we were real scared, because [Jones] was tired,” Winkeljohn told Sherdog.com after the bout. “He had pressed all day long. Well, s--t, the whole last two weeks, [cameras] following him around 24-7. I think all that hoopla got to him, and the pressure got to him a little bit. He was tired after the second round, and I was worried.”
“But you know what he did? He pushed through it, and that is a champion. That is a veteran. At 23 years old, that is incredible. All of a sudden, in the third round, he just decided, ‘Yeah, I’m going to win this thing,’ and he just went to another gear.”