he actually did beat dc at his own game.
besides the wrestling, huge part of dc's game is in the clinch. dc claimed to be the king of the grind. which is out grinding people on the inside with clinching and dirty boxing along with takedowns and top control. but with jones negating dc's wrestling jones outworked dc in the clinch and beating him up inside more so than from a distance.
jones height and reach was again a main factor, not so much in striking from the outside, but in takedown defense. when dc would clinch up and try for takedowns, all bones had to do was bend forward and not allow dc to grip his body or get under his hips to pick jones up. his lengthy arms and legs give him a strong base and part of that success was due to him having a huge height and reach advantage. even though dc is a strong wrestler, he couldn't get the position he needed to take jones down. and as the fight went on, the more they tired, the chances of using his wrestling became less of a factor.
he couldn't use a double leg takedown because of jones' size and he had to resort to single leg takedown attempts. and the one time he was able to find it, jones limbs are so long, when dc had him up in the air, jones was already in a position to fall on his hands and knees to pop back out while the smaller dc was already out of position to maintain control from the top. when dc did the same slams on josh Barnett and dan Henderson, they didn't have the limbs like jones so when getting dumped, to avoid being dumped head first, they'd roll with the slam and end up being slammed on their backs.