Sparring session knockouts are never a good thing to see. For one, no one involved is getting paid enough for the brain damage suffered. Secondly, the majority of sparring partners hired by MMA gyms to spar world-class athletes are usually not on the same level.
With that in mind, whenever a video of an elite athlete shows him/her knocking out a sparring partner emerges, fans generally have a lot of criticism.
Even MMA fighters like Sean O’Malley do not agree with hard sparring sessions. O’Malley has openly criticized UFC Middleweight Sean Strickland for releasing Knockout videos during sparring sessions.
Recently, a video emerged from a sparring session Jones had.
At a moment in the film, Jones was training with a sparring partner. At one point, Jones throws a hard left cross that completely shuts the lights off of his opponent.
The knockout blow was so impactful that even Jones drops to his knees to check on his training partner, however, Greg Jackson quickly lets the champion know that he needs to continue his training.
“Jon, pop up, you gotta finish the round,” said Jackson.
Jones would later completely dominate Rashad Evans by beating him by unanimous decision. At the time, Jones performed his third title defense. He would then go on to do great things in the division, by defending his title for 11 times, cementing himself as the all time great UFC Light Heavyweight.