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Coach says Jon Jones 'couldn't lift his arm' two days before Cormier rematch at UFC 214

Published Aug. 10, 2017 2:10 p.m. ET

In case there was any doubt how tough of a competitor UFC champ Jon Jones is, get a load of this.

According to Jones' coach Mike Winkeljohn, Jones sustained an injury so bad in training that he couldn't lift his arm above his head just two days before knocking out Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 214.

Talking with Submission Radio, Winkeljohn had this to say about how serious the injury was leading up to the fight:

"A couple of nights before the fight, he couldn’t lift his arm. He had hurt it wrestling. He wrestled a little too hard with his partner and maybe from a lack of warm up, I’m not sure, but it was kind scary. It was one of those situations where when I was warming him up I’d ask the coaches and they had agreed, they were ahead of me on this, that we shouldn’t be doing a lot wrestling."

Jones of course knocked out Cormier in the third round of the fight to reclaim the UFC light heavyweight belt but in hindsight this might explain some of the posturing throughout the fight's first two rounds in which Cormier seemed to have the upperhand through a strategy of keeping Jones off balance via stunting take down attempts.

With Cormier's extensive wrestling background, it makes sense that if Jones was in fact carrying an injury like that into the fight that he would avoid going to the ground with Cormier at all costs.

Either way, the fight seemed to workout just fine for Jones in the end as his sheer ability shown through with a vicious head kick.

Checkout Winkeljohn's full interview with Submission Radio below:

https://youtu.be/KYiLY71jXKw

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