Rashad Evans believes his former teammate Jon Jones will eventually make the move to heavyweight and will have success.
Ever since Jones vacated his light heavyweight title he said he would be moving up to heavyweight. However, it has been two years and he has yet to do it but for Evans, he believes ‘Bones’ will move up and will have a ton of success at the weight class.
“I think he does make the move to heavyweight. He’s already there, he’s already put the investment in, he’s put the time in and rounding out the skillset at a heavyweight body and making sure and he’s dotting his i’s and crossing his t’s,” Evans said to BJPENN.com. “It’s very methodical and very smart the way he’s going about it and I don’t think he will let that go to waste. He will find a way to get under control when he needs to get under control and go out there and compete. As far as do I think he can compete with those guys? 100 percent. I think Jon Jones is probably one of the scariest guys in the weight class apart from Francis.
“With Jon Jones, there are so many things he has yet to unlock still because now he’s going against a heavyweight body,” Rashad Evans said. “There are things heavyweights may struggle with being a light heavyweight. There will be a whole new part of his game he can open up and I imagine he will gear that towards the grappling side. The second time around, you will really see Jon Jones utilize more of his grappling and fighting a little bit smarter and make these guys compete where he is the strongest at.
“I think his ground game is really going to stand out and his ability to take people down and the pace he’s going to set is really going to stand out with the heavyweight division,” Evans continued. “When I see guys like Ciryl Gane, on the feet they may be able to hang with him in certain areas because you have the power aspect and the athlete so someone like that can give him some problems or pause in the standup. But, when it comes to utilizing to the ground game, he will do his thing with that.”
The hope for Rashad Evans and many MMA fans is we see Jon Jones compete at heavyweight soon. But, who and when that will be is uncertain at this time.
How do you think Jon Jones will fare at heavyweight?