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USA Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Jon Jones reflects on unrealized 'grit' in first Alexander Gustafsson fight
Jon Jones reflects on unrealized 'grit' in first Alexander Gustafsson fight Current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones took many lessons from his first fight against Alexander Gustafsson. Then the light heavyweight champion, Jones entered the fight at UFC 165 with five title defenses under his belt. "Bones" was in his prime, taking out former champions left and right with relative ease. After finishing Chael Sonnen in the first round, he was tasked with taking on Gustafsson, who at the time was a one-loss fighter on a six-fight winning streak. Jones knew there was a lot of noise surrounding Gustafsson's potential, but he admits he didn't take him as seriously as he should have. "I fought against Alexander Gustafsson the first time and, at the time, he was getting so much hype around him," Jones said on a "Deepcut with VicBlends" episode. "I looked at Alexander as being, quite frankly, a white version of me. He was tall, he had a swagger, he had great footwork, he had great boxing. I just felt like he's a lot like me, he has the same reach as me and everyhting, but I was like, 'He's not me.' "That fight, I partied a lot leading into that fight. I studied a lot, I trained a lot, but I had this (feeling of) knowing that I was gonna win, and it was at an all-time high." Not only did the UFC 165 main event win the Fight of the Night award, but it would also be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. It was truly one of the best fights in MMA history. Not only for the back-and-forth war that unfolded over 25 minutes, but it was also the first time anyone made Jones look human inside the octagon. Gustafsson lived up to the pre-fight hype as someone who could dethrone Jones, even though he ultimately came up short on the scorecards. "In that fight, things did not go the way I expected," Jones said. "I couldn't stop his jab. I hadn't prepared for a low jab; he was jabbing me to the stomach, and I had never prepared for that. He was a lot more confident than I expected him to be. He was in my face, and he was a person who was expecting to win. I had to pull from something that I didn't realize I had. I had a tenacity, and resilience, and a grit that I didn't realize I had." The battle left Jones in a condition he had never experienced before, and hasn't since. He recalls seeing his mother truly concerned for his health as he struggled to recover from what transpired in the octagon. "It's the first time I'd seen my mother crying over my bed backstage," Jones said. "They put me on morphine, and the morphine was making me shake profusely, and my lips were swollen. I couldn't talk. I couldn't eat. I couldn't use the bathroom on my own. That was one of the fights where I had really realized how seriously I had to take each and every opponent, that I could never get too big for my britches because there's always somebody that's nipping at our toes. That fight taught me a lot about the seriousness of preparation." Since that moment, Jones has won nine more fights – all of them championship fights, either in the light heavyweight or heavyweight division. It's a stretch that includes a rematch against Gustafsson at UFC 232, which was a far less competitive bout as Jones finished the fight by ground and pound in Round 3. Jones currently holds the heavyweight crown and has recorded one title defense. He may be heading toward retirement if he decides to pass on a title unification bout against interim champion Tom Aspinall.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jon Jones won't fight Tom Aspinall because he's too afraid of losing
MMA fans and pundits alike have spent the past several months calling UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones a duck because, they say, he's been ducking a title-unification bout with interim champ Tom Aspinall. Anyone who claims Jones fears Aspinall is misguided, though. It's not that simple. Really, how could the man most people consider to be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time fear anyone? What Jones does fear, however, is defeat. He made that very clear when asked this question during a "Deepcut with VicBlends" episode that released Thursday: "Would you still love fighting the same way if you weren't champ?" "No, I don't think I could ever be a person who loves fighting as a non-winner," Jones said. "For me, I'm so connected to winning, it's probably not even healthy. I see fighters that take losses, and they smile, and they hug their wives, 'Hey, better luck next time.' If I were to ever lose, I would be devastated. I would be angry, I'd be upset and depressed." That's all we needed to hear. Because make no mistake: With his dominance in the cage and given he's in his prime compared to Jones, 37, on his final run, Aspinall is a serious threat. He's probably the biggest threat ever to end Jones' unblemished record (sorry, Matt Hamill). Regardless of what Jones might say publicly about Aspinall, he has to know this deep down. So would Jones really risk defeat at this stage of his career? Or more to the point: Would he risk closing out his illustrious career feeling that devastation and anger and depression that he fears so much? Not when he's already living his best life. No matter how confident Dana White might be, Jones vs. Aspinall isn't happening. If you need more proof, listen to Jones answer the question, "Could we expect one more rodeo?" "I don't know what life holds as far as fighting and competing," Jones said. "I do feel like I'll be a lifelong martial artist whether I'm coaching others or taking exhibition matches and things like that. There's a lot of great competition still in the UFC. I do view myself as more than a fighter. Being in my position, I feel like I have a lot more options than a lot of the other fighters as far as the ability to leave and return. "And so right now I'm just focusing on love, happiness, kindness. We're at the quarter-century mark, and this year should be a really special year." Sadly, a year without the fight we all want to see. This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jon Jones' fear of defeat will prevent Tom Aspinall fight | Opinion
