Craig Jones has been involved with Alexander Volkanovski for several training camps and has even cornered him for some of his biggest fights, and now footage has been released of one of their sparring sessions. Volkanovski had already reached the very top of the UFC featherweight division when they crossed paths, but Jones has still been able to have a clear impact on his grappling development. The relationship must be working well for Volkanovski personally too; as it takes a lot for any fighter to trust a new cornerman, especially at the highest level of the sport with so much at stake.
Jones first connected with Volkanovski to work as the grappling coach for his team on The Ultimate Fighter, and the series showed that the pair hit it off right from the start. In the years since then, Volkanovski continued his featherweight title run for another 4 fights and has since regained it at UFC 314 to begin his second reign. He’s also challenged himself by moving up to the lightweight division for a pair of fights with Islam Makhachev, where he attempted to become a two-weight champion. Although he was unsuccessful on both attempts, the first fight in particular cemented his place as one of the best to ever do it.
Jones can’t take anywhere near full credit for Volkanovski’s career over the last few years of course, but having one of the greatest Jiu-Jitsu competitors in the world on the mats with you would obviously help your progress. Jones has even downplayed the effect that Jiu-Jitsu competitors can have on MMA fighters as cornermen, but the effect in training is undeniable. That’s shown pretty clearly in this footage of Jones and Volkanovski sparring together too, as Jones is able to put him in danger multiple times over. Just like any of the other disciplines that make up MMA, training with an elite specialist is a great way for fighters to improve their skills.
The full footage of Craig Jones and Alexander Volkanovski sparring together in training was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of B-Team Jiu-Jitsu:
