Jon Jones planning adjustments to Gable Steveson’s preparations in update after upset KO loss

Jon Jones believes they need to significantly increase the amount of sparring they do.

Jones was in the corner when Gable Steveson was knocked out last month in one of the biggest upsets to ever take place inside the Octagon.

Following a successful UFC debut in July, the heavyweight prospect was beaten in just 12 seconds by Sean Sharaf.

While it has been argued that Jones isn’t helping Steveson’s career in some ways, ‘Bones’ remains committed to helping his fighter bounce back.

Sean Sharaf knocked out the Olympic gold medalist in 12 seconds.

Jon Jones took responsibility for Gable Steveson leaving the Octagon last month before his opponent got his hand raised.

Across his two UFC fights, it has been clear to see how big an influence ‘Bones’ has been on the Olympic gold medallist’s still very young MMA career.

The former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion recently provided an update on how Steveson is doing just under a month on from this setback.

“Gable’s doing great. Gable’s doing really awesome,” Jones told The Schmo. “I believe in Gable. I believe in the man and the person that he is. I’m excited for him to just clear things up moving forward in his life, in his personal life, and as far as the athlete that Gable is, he’s extraordinary.”

The UFC legend went on to reveal an aspect of Steveson’s preparations that he believes needs to be changed following this defeat.

At 26 years old, the prospect has spent a very short amount of time inside the cage, which Jones is seemingly hoping to make up for by increasing how much sparring they do.

“He’s in the right headspace,” he added. “He’s right back to training. I feel like as a team, we need to add a lot more sparring and we have our little things that we need to work on as a team but he is in great hands. He has great mentors and a great team around him and we believe he is going to pull back in an amazing way.”

Other than Jon Jones and Khabib Nurmagomedov, all the greatest MMA fighters of all time have suffered losses in their careers.

‘Bones’ referred to this when reflecting on Gable Steveson’s loss and speaking about him bouncing back.

Jones specifically highlighted another one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, when Georges St-Pierre lost the welterweight title to Matt Serra in 2007.

“If you think about all the great fighters, [they] have had knockouts and losses. I mean, GSP versus Matt Serra. There’s just so many examples.”