Jon Jones says power lifting brought down muscle endurance in last fight

Even with his unanimous decision victory over Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197, Jon “Bones” Jones was criticized for his performance. With having over a year off from fighting in the Octagon, many people thought Jones didn’t look as spectacular as he once did.

One thing Jones did differently in preparation for his fight with Saint Preux was a lot of power lifting, which put more muscle on the UFC interim light heavyweight champion.

“For this training camp I’ve done almost zero weightlifting whatsoever,” Jones said recently to the media (transcribed by MMA Fighting).

“In my last fight, it definitely played a factor in me being conservative and conserving the way I used my energy,” Jones said. “I felt like I was in good shape, my lungs were strong, but I felt like my muscle endurance maybe wasn’t in the right place.”

Jones told the media that everyone will be able to see the difference when he fights champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 200.

“I’ve actually been focusing in burning off muscle by doing overloading on endurance. I think you’ll be able to tell in the weigh-ins and during the fight that I’ll look a lot more like the way I used to look, a lot less bulky. My endurance feels amazing,” Jones said.