Jon Jones has found a new, yet familiar home to train out of.
Jones has been training with Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn for the vast majority of his MMA career, being a big reason for the notoriety and fame of the gym. However, that all changed after his latest run-in with the law that saw him accused of domestic violence. Winkeljohn then revealed that he made the decision to ban the former light heavyweight champion from the gym until he is sober and able to get his life on track.
Last week, Jones said that he made the decision that, no matter what happens, he will not be returning to Jackson-Winkeljohn in the future.
“I definitely wouldn’t mind traveling a little bit and visiting a few places. You guys got any recommendations?” Jones wrote, before adding in subsequent tweets:
“I don’t feel like I carried the team (at Jackson-Wink), we have lots of guys doing amazing things out of that gym. I will admit the program isn’t at the level it used to be, and hasn’t been for a while now.
“definitely won’t be going back but I will continue to root for all the fighters that are training there. I do believe my training methods and sessions have improved significantly since changing environments. Grateful for all the time I got to spend there, everything has its time,” Jones continued.
“I know I won’t be able to train in my garage forever, eventually I’m going to need more training partners. Mainly wrestling partners and kickboxers. I’m on the lookout for teams that I’ll be able to visit and come train with, maybe get some sparring sessions in.”
Jon Jones Announces New Membership With Gym
Today, Jones announced where he will be training moving forward, Jackson’s MMA Acoma, a gym affiliated with Coach Greg Jackson.
“I want to sincerely thank Gym owner/ coach Nick Urso and everyone at the original Jackson’s MMA program for allowing me to call their dojo my new home base. I was so proud to see the condition of the gym, it was so well taken care of and the energy felt amazing exactly the way it was before. It has wonderful memories of my time learning from GSP, Sugar Evans, The dean of mean and so many more. I won my first world title out of this gym. I am grateful to have this comfortable place for both my local and visiting training partners to come enjoy. The best is yet to come!”
Few can argue with the idea that Jones will almost certainly benefit from a change in training environment. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here. Jones is expected to make his heavyweight debut in the first quarter of 2022.
