- Jon Jones opened up about thinking he could’ve lost to Dominick Reyes in the middle of the fight
- “Bones” explained why he only wants to fight the best despite new possible opponents emerging
- The UFC heavyweight champ named the current fighters who excite him the most
Jon Jones divulged a few interesting things about how he views his legendary MMA career at this point, including why he only wants to take on the best fighter there is. On top of that, “Bones” also shared a story about his epic fight with Dominick Reyes and named the current UFC fighters he thinks are the most exciting.
A voice told Jon this could be Over
Speaking to Kanpai Pandas, “Bones” confided that after Reyes hit him with a hard shot, a “voice” told him that he may have found the fighter who would finally end his reign. However, Jones snapped back to reality and figured he wouldn’t give up on himself and decided to hold on to his fighting chance.
“Jesse Owens, that was the quote: ‘I decided I wasn’t going to come down, I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.’ I’ll give you an example of when that quote came to me in the middle of a fight,” Jones recalled. “I was fighting Dominick Reyes. It was in round one. He hit me with a spinning back kick to the face, and then punched me in the stomach and I hit the floor, and it was technically a knockdown. Even the look he had in his eyes and the way he talked to me before the fight, telling me he was a multi-sport athlete. He wasn’t afraid of me and he believed it was his destiny to beat me and all this kind of stuff.”
“I got in the fight with him and he was giving me a true f**king run for my money,” he continued. “He was the only other person to do it to me outside of (Alexander) Gustafsson. I remember thinking to myself, ‘F**k, you may have met your match Jon.’ That’s what like a voice said to me right in the middle of the cage. ‘You may have met your match.’”
“And as clear as day, I saw a door,” he added. “I saw a door in the Octagn and it was just like, ‘Hey, you’ve had a great career. You’ve done a lot of great things. This kid, he wants it, he’s hungry for it. Jon, it’s okay. It’s okay if you come up short in this one. Just don’t let him knock you out, you can just kind of escape through this one and let him have it let the kid have it, Jon.’ And then I thought about that flying and never coming down, this is a decision. It’s a f**king decision to give up on yourself and something just as clear as that other voice said, ‘F**k that!’ [laughs] Something said to me, ‘F**k that!’ Not you, not today not me, not now Bubba.’ I just made the decision, ‘Dude, Maybe you’re gonna win this one, but you’ve gotta fight me.’ We got what? 23 minutes left yeah, we’re going to have to fight. And sure enough one foot in front of the other and I ended up getting that hand raised.”
Jon is only after the Best
Jones also made it clear that he is in no way disrespecting potential heavyweight opponents such as Tom Aspinall and Sergey Spivak but he has his own reasons why he is only gunning for the best. According to “Bones,” he has reached the level where people are just yearning to know when can he last as the best and it’s something he is not buying into.
For Jones, fighting has become more of a “business” in which he has to pick the biggest draw and the opponent that makes the most sense. At this point, Jones said only Stipe Miocic fits the bill.
“I feel like Stipe has balls, he has courage,” Jones explained. “He’s not the youngest fighter but that’s a man… he’s an honorable dude and I know that he’s a man at the end of the day and I know that he wants this fight when everyone else thinks that his back is against the wall and this is a David and Goliath situation for him, I disagree. I think Stipe is a very capable athlete and I think that I owe it to Stipe to give him that chance to fight the best fighter ever and I think Stipe owes it to me to give me that chance to fight the greatest heavyweight ever. I think we owe it to each other and I feel like we both would feel like we have unfinished business if we walked away not competing against each other.”
“As far as these younger fighters, I look at guys like Aspinall and I look at guys like Sergey… Dude, they’re amazing, don’t get me wrong these guys are amazing,” he pointed out. “But as I get older I have to look at it as a business and not just speak out of pride but I have to speak out as a you know, my legacy and the business and if the hardcore fans know who these guys are, that’s great. But at the end of the day, I need to fight people that the mainstream public is going to be excited about because when you’re in my position, there’s always going to be this new challenge that’s younger than you and everyone wants to see if you can do it one more time.”
Jon sees two UFC fighters who could reach higher heights
When asked about who among the current UFC fighters excites him the most, Jones said he only sees two – reigning bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley and top heavyweight contender Aspinall.
“Honestly, I may be a little cliche, but I’m with the majority of the community. I am most excited about Sean O’Malley,” Jones revealed. “I’m excited about him. I think he has the look. He reminds me a lot of McGregor. You know, he’s really raw and authentic. He has that kind of rags-to-riches story that everyone appreciates, especially in this country. I like him, I like him a lot. I really want to see how far he can take it. He’s young enough still to really make those leaps and bounds in his game to be around for a long time, I mean to beat up Aljamain like that, I always put my money on the wrestler… O’Malley, he’s looking like the total package. I’m gonna be tuning into his pay-per-views for the next few years for sure.”
“And then, Tom Aspinall,” he continued. “I think he really has the potential to do something really special in the heavyweight division. I think he’s going to be hard for the majority of guys to beat. I really do believe that. I think those two are I’m most excited about their futures in the UFC.”
Jones is set to defend his UFC heavyweight title and more importantly, cement his legacy as the greatest fighter of all time as he takes on Miocic at the much-awaited UFC 295 in November.
