Jon Jones absolutely dominated the legend Mauricio Shogun Rua and no one is more deserving of holding the UFC Light Heavyweight belt than he.

Not only did he totally dominate Rua and pretty much everyone else he’s faced inside the Octagon, he does so with creativity.

For a quick recap of some of Bones’ career highlights, check this vid and make sure your jaw doesn’t fall off your face:

Jones’ rise in mixed martial arts has been nothing short of meteoric.

Here are a few reasons, in no particular order, why Jones has gotten SO good SO fast and is the youngest man to ever win a UFC belt…

His Body Shape and Size (anthropometrics for you biology nerds)

Jones is 6’4″ tall and has ridiculously long arms and legs and broad shoulders, making him a physical freak in the LHW division.

You can’t train these factors and Jones’ has been blessed with a great physical make-up no doubt.

Don’t think for a minute though that body shape and size are the key.

We’ve seen guys with similar body’s before, guys like Kendall Grove.

So physicality is useless without…

Endurance, Strength, Power, Co-ordination, Agility,
Quickness, Speed and Balance (the 7 Biomotor Abilities)

I first learned of the biomotor abilities through Tudor Bompa’s book Periodization, then took the concept further through my study of Paul Chek’s material in his Advanced Program Design course.

Basically, you can rate a sport’s requirements of each of the abilities listed above and then develop your training program accordingly.

The thing is, with MMA, it pretty much requires relatively high levels of each biomotor ability, making the training program quite complex since it has to balance the development of each of these (sometimes competing) abilities.

For example, a marathon runner is one of the highest expressions of endurance, so an MMA fighter doesn’t need or want to be at that level, whereas powerlifting is the ultimate show of strength and likewise a fighter must be strong but doesn’t have to put up elite powerlifting totals.

Trying to be both an elite marathon runner and powerlifter is literally impossible.

So training and developing the abilities relative to the needs of MMA is key.

Jones has got an amazing blend of all of these biomotor abilities as shown in his fights.

Not only that, but it’s also…

His Ability To Rapidly Learn New Skills

I knew he was a wizard when I first heard that he learned skills from YouTube.

But it’s one thing to learn a new technique from videos, it’s another thing to use it in the Octagon.

As we’ve seen from his first couple of fights in the octagon to now, he’s been picking up and using new skills along the way.

When he first fought in the UFC, he showed off his flashy spinning elbows and kicks vs. Gusmao and some brutal takedowns/slams vs. Bonnar.

But now, he’s added new flashy moves, such as the Superman Lead Elbow and Leap Frog to Back vs. Bader.

More importantly, he’s added a whole lotta substance to his flash, such as the vicious elbows from top position vs. Vera and Hamill, his submissions vs. Bader, Matyushenko and O’Brien and now his complete arsenal of weapons were on display vs. Shogun.

Bottom line – the kid learns fast and he doesn’t stop learning.

But you’ve come here to learn about Jon’s most powerful weapon.

Ariel Helwani did an interview where I believe Jones himself reveals the key to his rapid rise.

The whole interview is worth watching, but the ‘secret’ is at 2:39. Check it out:

OK, now I have 2 questions for you:

1. What do you think about this?
2. What fight would you rather see, Jones vs. A. Silva or A. Silva vs. GSP?

Leave your answers in the Comments section. GO!