Jon Jones will step back into the cage for the first time this year when he faces Alexander Gustafsson in a rematch on Dec. 29 at UFC 232.<\/p>\n
The lack of cage time is no surprise to those who have followed Jones’ career over the last few years. Drug testing suspensions and a hit-and-run accident have kept the 31-year-old limited to just one fight a year since 2014 and also cost him his light heavyweight title.<\/p>\n
While many pundits will say this has had a negative impact on his fighting career, Jones’ coach Brandon Gibson sees the positives in the layoff, mainly in the lack of damage he’s taken as he explained on The MMA Hour on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not getting his brains battered in [during his time off],\u201d Gibson explained (transcript via MMA Fighting<\/a>). “He\u2019s not getting concussions. He\u2019s taking care of his body and his mind, and this is such a \u2014 at this top one percent, these guys are tough. That\u2019s not an aspect that comes with sparring or anything like that. The time off where we\u2019re not having impact, where his body\u2019s not getting beaten up and broken down, where we\u2019re just continuing to evolve the skill and the technique and the strategy and develop Jon that much more as a martial artist is key. And you said he\u2019s 31, he has a long fight career ahead of him still, and he really feels like this time off has prolonged his career that much more.”<\/p>\n