Jon Jones has built such an aura around himself through his incredible performances over the span of a decade and a half that it is difficult to imagine him getting dropped during sparring, let alone inside the octagon. It just seems improbable. However, UFC veteran, Carlos Condit, who has trained alongside Jones claims he saw it happen once.
Jones has an incredible pro-MMA record of 28-1-0. That 1 also was only the result of a DQ against Matt Hamil in 2009 after he landed some illegal 12-6 punches. Interestingly this has since been made legal. Other than that, Jones has rarely ever faltered during an entire career of title fights against world champions.
So, who is it that managed to humble the UFC GOAT in training? According to Condit, it was Chechen fighter Adlan Amagov, who landed a spinning backkick that sent Jones to the mat.
“Adlan Amagov, he’s Chechen. And he fought in the UFC a couple times……But yeah he finished a number of guys, he was like a spinning back kick guy. He f*cked me up and then a round or two later, he hit Jon with that spinning back kick and he dropped him.”
Carlos Condit says him and Jon Jones both got dropped by the same guy in training pic.twitter.com/9cHhXSYe7G
— JAXXON PODCAST (@JaxxonPodcast) February 12, 2025
According to Condit, this was the only time he had ever seen Jones get dropped during training. Amagov, known for his flashy and powerful striking, even went viral in 2010 for a devastating spinning hook kick knockout of Maskhat Akhmetov. Despite the evident potential, he retired early from the sport with an impressive 14-2-1 MMA record.
Of course, sparring sessions are vastly different from actual fights, and a single hit may not mean much but to find a chink in a world champion’s armor is a win in itself. And nobody knows that better than Condit.
When Condit almost beat GSP
Back in UFC 154, Condit was the interim welterweight champion, while GSP was returning to action after 20 months following a serious knee surgery. GSP more or less dominated the interim champion and ended up winning it judges’ decision, who scored the match 50-45.
But it wasn’t as one-sided as it looks on paper. After being busted open in the first two rounds, Condit found some rhythm in the third and caught GSP with a head kick that sent him sprawling onto the floor.
And for a brief moment, it looked like Condit might pull off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history. He swarmed GSP with ground-and-pound, trying to secure the finish, but St-Pierre survived, regained his composure, and fought his way back into the contest.
GSP has often described surviving this kick as one of the proudest moments of his career. In a 2019 press conference, the welterweight GOAT put a lot of emphasis on the art of survival and said,
“The moment I’m the most proud in my career is when I got dropped in the fight game. It’s when I got dropped with a head kick by Carlos Condit and I fell down and I was able to stand up… It sounds weird. People think it will be about a victory or a knockout (but) for me it’s when I got dropped by a head kick and I survived.”
Needless to say, even the best in the world are vulnerable to knockdowns and vicious head kicks. What separates them from the rest, however, is how they react to it.
