Former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic believes he’s the greatest fighter the division has ever seen, a claim supported by his UFC 295 opponent, Jon Jones. In addition, former rival, Daniel Cormier, insists Miocic is one of the most dangerous men on the planet.
Grappling deity Gordon Ryan, however, doesn’t see anything special.
“Stipe, there’s nothing really special that he does as an MMA grappler,” Ryan told Morning Kombat (transcribed by Drake Riggs). “He’s not bad, but it’s not like he has an amazing ability to hip heist up or an amazing triangle or armbar or gets mounted on you, you’re never gonna get up. He’s kind of like a good, generic, all-around guy. So, I think that — obviously, Jon studies a lot of tape on him as well — at this point, Jon is just interested in doing things that he wants to improve upon as an athlete himself.”
“If there was one thing I saw that Stipe did that was dangerous to Jon, or that I think could give Jon problems, then I would force Jon to be in those positions,” Ryan continued. “But Stipe’s not known as a super dangerous grappler so I think it’s just overall Jon is just trying to improve as an athlete.”
Ryan has been training with Jones, 36, ahead of the UFC 295 pay-per-view (PPV) main event on Nov. 11 in New York. That’s where “Bones” will defend the 265-pound strap — captured with a submission win over Ciryl Gane back in March — against the 41 year-old Miocic, who has not competed since suffering a knockout loss to the since-departed Francis Ngannou in early 2021.
“Jon is a lot like ‘GSP,’” Ryan said. “He’s not the best wrestler in the world, he’s not the best striker in the world, he’s not the best at jiu-jitsu in the world, but when it’s time to put things all together — just like Georges — he does it better than anybody else in the world. So, if you get a high-level wrestler, he’s gonna lose a wrestling match [and so on]. But when it’s time to actually fight, he’s better than anybody else in the world.”
“The two things that impressed me to a very shocking degree with him was No. 1, his ability to learn moves,” Ryan added. “Because most guys at his level who are successful, and most guys who are in their mid-30s and they already have an established game over two decades, they have their game then once you teach them something they don’t really retain. It’s like they have their game and that’s it. With Jon, he’s always looking to integrate new things into his game and if he has five different topics he asks me about and I teach him five things, he might disregard three of them but if he likes two of them, he will immediately be like, ‘Okay. That’s a part of my game now.’”
Whether or not that part of his game is enough to overcome Miocic remains to be seen.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
