In August, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones”Jones vacated the title, voluntarily for once, to move up to the heavyweight division.
“The light heavyweight division was fun, but I just wasn’t scared of those guys anymore,” said Jones recently to ESPN Staff Writer Marc Raimondi. “Like, none of them. And I think it showed in some of my performances. Obviously, I still trained hard. But there was no urgency in some of my last fights. With these next guys I’m going to be going up against, I respect these guys. These guys are intimidating, they’re intimidating as s***. It just gets me up in a whole different way.”
Jones used to walk around at around 220. Now, after months of heavy weight-training, he’s 240.
“It’s a different feel for me,” said Jones. “I would never really train in between fights. I would allow myself to get fat. To train now with no fight scheduled, it’s different. It shows maturity and it shows how much I really want to do this. I’m trying to change my whole makeup. There are some guys that are way bigger than me up there. I’m just constantly pushing … I have to commit my whole life to this project. I’m committed.”
Jones believes the added strength will add to his wrestling game.
“When I was 205, I always had a hard time getting down low,” said Jones. “Or hated getting low, with singles and stuff like that. Almost as if my knees were killing me to do it. Now that I’ve been working on my legs so much and they’ve gotten thicker … I think that’s going to translate into me shooting high-crotches and shooting double-legs. I think it’ll make those muscles a lot faster. I predict that my shooting ability and my wrestling is going to just be faster. There’s just more power, and my ass has gotten a lot bigger. I think my double-legs are going to be one of the biggest differences in my game that people are going to notice.”
“I just want there to be no debate when I’m done. I do feel like I’ve had a great light heavyweight career. I’m by far the greatest light heavyweight. And in my heart, I do feel like I’m the best fighter in this sport’s history. But I just don’t want there to be any debate. And one way I can do that is by capturing this heavyweight crown, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Jones plans to fight at heavyweight in June, or late, and has not yet determined whether he wants to get his feet wet with a top-10 fighter, or if he wants a title shot, presumably at the winner of current division champion Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou.
UG, who do you want to see Jones debut against?
