Jon Jones is accustomed to answering the UFC’s bell with reckless abandon. And with a real sense of timing.
The man known as “Bones” for his rangy frame took his first UFC fight in 2008 on two weeks’ notice. Four seconds into his title shot in 2011, Jones used an acrobatic flying knee to make a dramatic statement: The UFC light heavyweight belt owned by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua rightfully belonged to him.
Jones has held onto the title ever since, wiggling out of a Vitor Belfort arm bar, absorbing a massive strike by Lyoto Machida and conquering Alexander Gustafsson in a five-round war for the ages.
The UFC’s top pound-for-pound fighter has won via stoppages a staggering 75 percent of the time during his MMA career, the sort of track record that defies his own humble assessment of his sporting prowess.
“I’m not very athletic,” Jones told UFC.com during a break from training at the Team Jackson-Winkeljohn gym in Albuquerque, N.M. “It’s something my brothers don’t talk about now. They all know it. They used to joke, ‘Don’t pick Jon in a pickup basketball game.’ It’s fine. I’ll just watch and be cheerleader.”
Jones, 27, gravitated toward wrestling — and, eventually, MMA — as his brothers charted courses for the NFL as defensive ends (Arthur plays for the Indianapolis Colts, and Chandler is a member of the New England Patriots.) This was purely intentional.
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