Mark Kinney is Team Wolfslair's respected boxing coach. He reveals his plans to take out Jon Jones and re-crown Quinton 'rampage' Jackson the light heavy weight kingpin.

Spinning elbows, suplexes, flying knees; Jon ‘Bones’ Jones may be the new superhero of the UFC, but Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson’s no-nonsense boxing coach Mark Kinney believes he has the answer to finally finish the light heavyweight champion.

“Bones’ kryptonite is his face,” he states with confidence. “We plan to deal with that. Rampage can take you out with one shot. It’s that simple.”

The straight-talking, brash Brit is the man responsible for priming Rampage’s stand-up ahead of his bout with the light heavyweight champion at UFC 135. While Jones could prove the biggest test yet, Kinney is no stranger to success, with his fighters at Wolfslair Academy all recently providing formidable performances. 

Rampage is currently relishing wins over Lyoto Machida and Matt Hamill, while Bisping has accumulated a three-fight winning streak including impressive victories over Yoshihiro Akiyama and Jorge Rivera since Kinney took him under his tutelage in 2009.

Then of course there’s Cheick Kongo’s unbeaten run, highlighted with a ‘come from behind and explode out of nowhere’ knockout over Pat Barry, which instantly fired him into the shortlist for ‘Knockout of the Year’ at the Fighters Only World MMA Awards.

Kinney’s formula for success is simple: the former Great Britain boxing coach is “taking things back to basics.”

“You have to polish these kids up and get the basics right,” he states. “What I’ve done is implemented the style of the British boxing team which is ‘tight guard in, tight guard out.’ With four-ounce gloves there’s a high risk of damage. I’ve developed this ‘peekaboo’ style, especially with Bisping; and it’s working.

He’s just moving into range and letting his shots go, no more than two or three, then getting out of range. If you look at the Akiyama fight, that’s where it was all implemented and it was an impressive victory.”

Kinney encapsulates the old-school ethos of spit-and-sawdust boxing gyms around the globe; it’s fine to be flashy, providing you get the basics right.

“Now his hand positions are a lot higher and tighter and his footwork’s a lot better with his phasing. If he pushes his punching hand out, his non-punching hand is on guard at all times. I’ve really tightened him up.

“He had what I called a ‘drift-left habit’ where you’re drifting left all the time onto a person’s right hand, if they’re an orthodox striker.

Mike had it badly. It worked for him funnily enough in the Chris Leben fight because Leben’s a southpaw, but obviously with Hendo he got severely punished.

I also sit down with him about not pushing away too far so he’s pushing away at the right range and getting straight back in.”

Constantly on the move, Kinney has had to travel from his home in Liverpool, England, to Las Vegas to work with Bisping, then on to Denver to train Rampage, and finally to Florida to polish Kongo’s striking ahead of his bout with former NFL lineman and knockout specialist Matt Mitrione.

Yet Kinney’s 13,000-mile trip across the globe shows the unity and dedication between team Wolfslair, despite its members being located at distant corners of the globe.

“It’s tough traveling all the distance and being away from family,” says Kinney. “I’m going to be away for a while to work with Cheick, but it’ll be worth it.

Cheick’s victory was an awesome win for him, with credit going to Wolflair’s Thai boxing coach Dave Jackson, but he got caught by Barry.

I need to work with him on that. From a coaching point of view, when Barry switched to southpaw he wound his lead hand over the top and blew Cheick off his feet.

With Cheick being six-foot-four, all he needed to do was stick his lead hand out and the shot wouldn’t have landed. But he didn’t, so that’s something we need to drill more.”

Like all top coaches, it is evident Kinney is a perfectionist.

Yet he’ll need to be if Rampage is to topple Jones at UFC 135.

Still, Kinney is confident Rampage has what it takes to see the title belt wrapped around his waist once again. “Jon Jones is a very, very good fighter,” he says. “Yet there’s one thing he hasn’t got that Rampage has: experience. There’s an old saying that states ‘you can’t buy experience in a shop.’

Apart from Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones is the least experienced champion there’s ever been in the UFC.”

Kinney’s statements ring true. Just recently turning 24 years old, Jones only turned pro little over three years ago and is the youngest champion to ever grace the Octagon.

Yet these facts are easily clouded when analyzing the champion’s performances. Excluding his disqualification loss to Matt Hamill via illegal elbows at The Ultimate Fighter 10 finale, he’s managed to finish his past five opponents inside the distance with panache and brutality; a stratum in Jones’ career Kinney cares little for.

“Jon Jones is a very aggressive fighter but we plan to use space and the result will come. He will taste some of Rampage’s power.

Rampage knows what it’s like to defend a title. He’s a former champion. Champions have to dig deep. We’ll see if Jon’s got that.”