Sherdog’s Top 10: Elbows

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4. Jon Jones vs. Everybody

No fighter in MMA history has made better use of his elbows than former UFC light heavyweight champion Jones. The only reason he does not occupy the top spot on this list is because the Sherdog.com staff could not agree on a single entry that ruled them all; instead, we have chosen to treat him as an aggregate body of work.

Elbows are the straw that stirs the drink of Jones’ game, both on the feet and on the ground, where he broke Brandon Vera’s face and smashed Matt Hamill. His freakish length allows him to land them in what would be the right distance for hooks and other power punches for most of his compatriots, which gives him a tremendous advantage in the pocket. This was the case for his near-knockdown of Rashad Evans and it has been his bread and butter against most of his opponents.

If Jones is good with standing elbows at range, he is devastating in the clinch. He chewed up Glover Teixeira’s face with repeated strikes, and he took the wind out of Daniel Cormier’s sails by repeatedly elbowing him during the clinch exchanges the Olympian thought he would win.

Jones’ most devastating elbows, however, have always been of the spinning variety. He first threw one against Andre Gusmao in his UFC debut, flattened Stephan Bonnar with an iconic example, blasted Mauricio Rua on his way to claiming the light heavyweight crown and turned the tide of a fight he was losing against Alexander Gustafsson with perhaps his finest one yet.

Jones’ body of work with elbows exceeds that of any other fighter in the sport’s history, and it is not close.

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