Jon Jones has now been on the sidelines for a year now nursing an injury and it appears as though the champion may have been a bit lax with his training. At least that is what middleweight Paulo Costa thought as he poked fun at one of Bones’ recent pictures online.
You see, Costa has built a reputation for himself as being one of the biggest trolls in the UFC. There are very few fighters on the roster who haven’t been attacked by Costa on Twitter. Hence, something was just waiting to happen when an MMA fan account on Twitter recently posted Jones’ picture with the caption, ‘Jones looking fit.’
It did seem like there was a bit of sarcasm in that post, especially since ‘Bones’ looked pretty out of shape in the picture. The former champ seems to have put on quite a bit of weight during his time off, and he’s even sporting a full-blown paunch now. Of course, the UFC’s self-proclaimed ‘meme god’ couldn’t resist and jumped in with a comment, saying,
“Fit in a bus.”
Fit in a bus https://t.co/kIDZGxY849
— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) August 23, 2024
Costa was obviously making fun of Jones’ size here pointing at the significant weight gain for a man who has been extremely lanky throughout his career at light heavyweight. The added weight surely helped Jones compete against Ciryl Gane, but one must wonder if it will affect his performance against more agile and faster fighters such as Tom Aspinall and Stipe Miocic.
Well, there’s only one way to find out, and if all goes to plan, find out we will in November this year.
Added weight to be the Achilles heel for Jones against Aspinall?
Tom Aspinall represents the new age of heavyweight fighters in the UFC. The Briton almost moves and fights like a middleweight whilst being at the top of the food chain in the organization. In fact, Jones has used this exact strategy to secure wins over power punchers. However, that was at light heavyweight where he was extremely agile and elusive.
Unfortunately, Jones’ current added weight will surely affect two things. For starters, it will affect his cardio, although the intensity of the effects remains to be seen. Secondly, it will affect his movement as well, significantly slowing him down. This means that he is more susceptible to a fight-ending punch from Aspinall landing clean.