It has been a reoccurring theme throughout Jon Jones’ career that he always looks to bring in some of the best specialists in their fields to train with him. This has been no different ahead of his long awaited return at UFC 309 this Saturday night.
Fans have already seen how “Bones” has been working alongside one of the best jiu-jitsu competitors and wrestlers around right now by added Gable Steveson and Gordon Ryan to his close knit team. Over a month out from his first heavyweight title defense, Jones was also seen getting some training in one of the top heavyweight boxers around right now.
New Zealand’s Joseph Parker is coming off of his two most impressive wins to date with victories over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang. Jones was incredibly impressed by the in-form competitor, as he spoke about during a recent interview with Fox Sports New Zealand.
“He’s so disciplined and so dedicated. Literally every day he was here, he was just trying to figure out ways to get better, his diet, his worth ethic. He’s just so humble like he was willing to learn from anyone around and you would imagine a person that’s fought at the level he’s fought would have a little bit of pride and a little bit of ego and man, he was just abnormally kind and I’m really grateful to call him a friend.”
Given that his upcoming opponent, Stipe Miocic, is known for his boxing skills, working alongside someone as high level as Parker is sure to have been a great experience for Jones heading into Madison Square Garden on November 16. He reflected on what he was able to gain from the time they spent together.
“Well it was very humbling to try to box with him. He’s just so powerful and so tight in his position and his technique. He gave me some great pointers. I don’t want to get into it in depth because a lot that he taught me, I’ll be trying to implement in my next fight but we both have many years of training experience and to collaborate and to learn different training methods from him was really nice, him and his coach [George] Lockhart.”
