Jon Jones points to two factors that led to him moving to heavyweight.
A longtime UFC light heavyweight champion, Jones defended his belt 11 times overall over multiple title reigns. He went through two generations of 205-pound talent – from Lyoto Machida to “Rampage” Jackson to Rashad Evans to Alexander Gustaffson to Daniel Cormier – before his eventual final title defense against Dominick Reyes in February 2020. After that, he relinquished his title.
Jones last two title defenses were narrow decision wins over Thiago Santos and Reyes. Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) admitted that he lacked motivation when going up against lesser known competition and didn’t believe his pay was adequate.
“I don’t know if it was necessarily in my training,” Jones said on “Unlocking the Cage” with Jimmy Smith. “I stopped studying footage as much. I started just looking forward to another day at the office. The fear was gone. I didn’t really fear these guys, and I wasn’t happy with my pay, either.
“I was starting to fight guys like (Dominick) Reyes, who had been dreaming of fighting me probably since college, and he was just relatively unknown to the general public. So I just wanted more. I wanted to be nervous again. I wanted to have fear again. I think fear is healthy, and now we’re in this position. The heavyweight division has never been scarier, and I’m glad to be right in the middle of it.”
Jones makes his heavyweight debut after a three-year layoff when he meets Ciryl Gane (11-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for the vacant heavyweight title in the UFC 285 headliner on March 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.
