Jones confident heading into bout with Rua
Posted March 16, 2011 10:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
NEW YORK — The fan Q & A portion of the UFC 128 news conference was about to wrap Wednesday when the man at the microphone asked challenger Jon (Bon) Jones to stand up on stage at Radio City Music Hall.
Jones obliged, unfolding his lean six-foot-four frame like an oversized deck chair.
“Do you really think you could win this fight?” he was asked of his main event matchup Saturday with light-heavyweight champion Mauricio (Shogun) Rua.
“Absolutely,” Jones said after learning his questioner’s name was Anthony.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t think I could beat Shogun, 100 per cent, that’s a silly question.”
It takes a lot to unsettle the 23-year-old mixed martial arts phenom. None of his UFC opponents have managed to do it. And neither did Anthony, although Jones later acknowledged he didn’t like his attitude.
“The guy asking me to stand up to ask that question, I thought was disrespectful,” he said calmly. “But you’ve got to take some and you give some. It happens.”
Anthony may be the only one not showing respect for Jones (12-1). The bookies have made him a 2-1 favourite to beat the 29-year-old Rua (19-4) at the Prudential Centre in Newark (available on pay-per-view).
“What’s crazy, what’s really tripping me out about this whole thing is how he’s the favourite in this fight,” UFC president Dana White said of Jones. “People aren’t giving Shogun the respect that this guy deserves.
“I mean he’s been in the business for 10 years, he’s beat the who’s who and he is nasty. He goes in to finish people, man.”
But White sees the Jones appeal.
“He has that ‘It’ factor and it’s not this ferocious, mean,” White said. “It’s smooth, slick. He’s good-looking, he speaks well. But when he gets in there and fights, he’s another man. He’s a finisher.
“I think this guy’s so incredible, I think we’ll seeing him hanging with Barack Obama pretty soon,” White added. “This guy’s going to be at the White House. I seriously believe that. He just appeals to so many people. You can’t not like Jon Jones.”
Jones, looking like something out of a GQ shoot in an elegant suit and open shirt, showed that at the news conference when he was asked about fighting Rua, a former Pride champion and feared Muay Thai striker.
“Shogun wakes up in the morning and he puts his pants on just like I did. I’m sure he poops just like I poop,” he said, drawing laughs. “It’s another fight.
“I try not to fight the face, I try not to fight the name. I fight the body.”
Jones is a former junior college champion wrestler who put aside a scholarship at Iowa State when his high school sweetheart Jessie became pregnant (they remain together and have two kids).
He turned to MMA as a way to keep competing.
Jones won his first six fights in just three months in 2008. That got the UFC’s attention.
Jones won his UFC debut at UFC 87 in August 2008 and has gone 5-1 since. The one loss was by disqualification over Matt (The Hammer) Hamill for a disputed illegal elbow.
Hamill got the win but could hardly stand to accept it after being tossed around like a rag doll and punished on the ground during the fight. He required shoulder surgery in the aftermath.
Jones then destroyed Brandon (The Truth) Vera, battering him with elbow strikes. Vera needed facial surgery in the aftermath.
“He’s hurting people,” White said.
Decisive wins over veteran Vladimir (The Janitor) Matyushenko and rising star Ryan (Darth) Bader followed and the UFC opted to slot Jones in against Rua when former champion Rashad Evans pulled out because of injury.
With an enormous reach of 84.5 inches, Jones is a handful. He’s also athletic and unpredictable. No one has figured him out yet.
Should Jones beat the Brazilian on Saturday, he will become the UFC’s youngest champion at 23 years eight months (Canadian Carlos Newton and Josh Barnett were both 24 when they won titles).
“If he wins that title Saturday, his life is going to change so dramatically, it’s going to be crazy,” White said. “You win that title, it’s a roller-coaster rider after that, man, and hopefully he’s mature enough and smart enough and grounded enough to be able to deal with it.
“Because I’ve seen it happen to everyone. … Everything changes and it’s a lot to deal with.”
From women to would-be business partners, successful fighters attract attention.
Said White. “Guys lose focus of who they really are — I’m a fighter, I’m not an actor, I’m not a supermodel.”
Jones confirms he has drawn plenty of female attention.
“I stay strong being faithful,” he says, before adding with a grin, “Sometimes it’s fun to flirt.”
But Jones seeks to have his head screwed on right, thanks to his family and upbringing.
Born in Rochester, Jones calls Endicott, N.Y. home.
“There’s not a restaurant I can walk into and not be treated with a lot of love in Endicott,” he said.
“I care what they think when I go home … They know how I am and how I should act and how things should be.”
His father, Arthur, is a pastor at the Mount Sinai Church of God in Christ in Binghamton, N.Y.
He calls his mother Camille “a hero.”
“She’s blind today but she’s still the backbone of our family and she can’t see a thing,” he said. “That just goes to show how powerful she is.
“We grew up very poor … I didn’t even realize that I was poor because my parents showered us with so much love.”
One brother, Arthur Jones Jr., is a defensive tackle with the Baltimore Ravens. The other, Chandler Jones, is a defensive end at Syracuse.
His sister Carmen died in 2002 of brain cancer.
Jones likes to use his Twitter account to preach a positive message and talk about his faith. He calls it his pulpit, with 51,000 followers and growing.
“Christ is what makes me do the right things when people aren’t looking,” he said. “Obviously I’m not perfect. I swear, I deal with temptations. But Christ is a big part of my life.”
He literally wears his faith on his chest, sporting a tattoo that says Philippians 4:13, a reference to the verse “I can do all things through Christ.”
He says he supports “any type of God.”
“Just as long as you believe in positivity and faith, believing in yourself. This is a cold world and if you don’t believe in yourself, the world will pass you by. There’s no mercy in this world so you have to give yourself the best odds mentally at all times.”
Jones is nothing but positive. Be grateful for the things you do have, from being healthy to being able to stand up without someone helping you.
“Happiness is a decision,” he says. “That’s also something I would like everybody to get a piece of.”
But he knows his rapid rise has turned some off. Some are waiting for the Jones bubble to burst.
“I have a very large group that doesn’t embrace me,” Jones said. “Every fight that I have, people are saying this hype train’s going to end. And then next thing you know, there’s more and more people believing in me.
“For every two people that love me and realize what I’m trying to do and realize that I’m just trying to share and help, I think there’s three people who find a reason to not like me, whether thinking I’m arrogant or what, I have no clue
“I think that’s people having insecurities within their own heart.”
Jones looks for things to build up, not tear down.
“Life can be very fulfilling if you learn how to look for it.”
