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Greg Jackson expects Matyushenko to spoil Jones fight
ESPN staff
July 29, 2010
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Jon Jones will be quicker and taller than Vladimir Matyushenko
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Jon Jones' coach Greg Jackson has revealed they expect Vladimir Matyushenko to play the role of spoiler when the pair meet in this weekend's main event.
Matyushenko is the overwhelming underdog in the UFC on Versus headline fight, despite his severe experience superiority over Jones. The Belarusian began his MMA career back in 1997 and has also won 11 of his past 12 fights, but his opponent on Sunday is tipped for the very top.
Trained by arguably the best coach in the world, Jones already has incredible striking and wrestling ability at the tender age of 23, and Jackson admits he expects Matyushenko to try to ruin the fight in order to stifle his quicker opponent.
"I'm not overly concerned with any one part of the fight," Jackson, who also trains the likes of Georges St-Pierre, Rashad Evans and Nate Marquardt, told Sherdog radio.
"I want to watch the pace because Vladimir's just trying to get in there and stuff us, get inside, smother, break it. That's my concern with him, just trying to smother and stay on top.
"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 wrestling so we should be well-prepared for his game plan."
Having seen Jones dazzle the likes of Stephen Bonnar and Brandon Vera with some spectacular throws and crazy spinning elbows, it would seem he is a difficult man to keep to a game plan. Jackson confesses he does not set a rigorous plan to follow, revealing he merely points out several areas to attack.
"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 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 is going to define that fight.
"So, instead of saying, 'OK 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 a unique game plan for that kind of fighter."
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