Jon Jones is considered to be one of the greatest combat athletes of the generation. The UFC Heavyweight Champion has proven himself against a multitude of top-notch contenders.
Apart from his skills in the octagon, Jones is very well known for his eccentric behavior outside of it. Recently, one of Jon’s teammates revealed his intense aggression in the gym after getting dropped.
According to Jon’s teammate, he heard a loud scream downstairs while he was holding sparring sessions in the octagon. “Then I saw Jon Jones lying on the floor, yelling…He had been kicked in the liver,“ said his teammate.
According to him, ‘Bones’ was in a lot of pain because of the liver shot. Furthermore, the whole gym was shocked after seeing Jon Jones knocked down.
However, the MMA GOAT flipped the switch during his next sparring sessions. “He (Jon Jones) on the following sparring session turned it up aggressively, with real intentions,“ said his teammate. Furthermore, the UFC champion showed no mercy to the sparring partner who knocked him out, and everyone has eagerly waited for his sparring sessions since that day.
It is quite shocking to know that a fighter of Jon Jones‘ caliber can get dropped like that in a sparring match. Jon showed his determination and hunger for the game by getting better in the following sessions. However, there was a time when he mentally gave up in the middle of a match.
Jon Jones almost quit in the middle of a championship match
In an interview, ‘Bones’ revealed that he almost quit in the middle of one of his most important title defenses in the UFC. At UFC 247, Jon Jones faced his toughest opponent, Dominick Reyes, for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. According to Jones, when Reyes knocked him down in the first round, he lost hope of winning the match.
“He was giving me a true f*****g run for my money,” said Jones. Furthermore, he said, “I remember thinking to myself, hey you’ve had a great career you’ve done a lot great things. This kid he wants it…It’s okay for you (Jones) to become short on this one,” said Jon Jones.
Furthermore, he stated that his only goal after round 1 was to not get finished by Dominick Reyes. However, he went on to win the match via a controversial unanimous decision. To this day, many MMA fans still believe that Reyes should have won the championship at UFC 247. Dominick’s career went on a downward spiral after this loss.
On the other hand, Jones was supposed to defend his Heavyweight Championship against Stipe Miocic, but the match got scrapped after ‘Bones’ got injured. He is expected to take on the Interim Champion, Tom Aspinall, after his recovery.