After three years away from the UFC, Jon Jones
isn’t looking too far ahead — but he does have a plan in place for
his short-term future.
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Jones will return to the Octagon to face Ciryl Gane
for the vacant heavyweight championship at UFC 285 on March 4.
After a lengthy reign at 205 pounds, Jones admits that he feels
newly motivated competing in a new division.
“I’m excited. I’m grateful. I feel humble. I feel appreciated by
the company I work for. I feel like I’m in a really good place,”
Jones said in an interview with
MMA Underground. “MMA feels fun to me again. Obviously, with
being out for three years and in a new division, there’s a lot of
questions that cause me to stay up long nights, but it keeps me
sharp. It’s something that I feel like I didn’t have at light
heavyweight towards the end. Towards the end it just felt like
another day at the office. This doesn’t feel like another day at
the office. This feels very different. The nerves, the anxiety –
it’s all back. I do good when I’m under pressure.”
According to Jones, he was felt ready to make his first heavyweight
foray last year, but things didn’t work out with the UFC and his
potential opponents.
“I felt my physical size and strength was ready to go about four
months ago,” Jones said. “Dana [White] says that there was never a
Stipe fight on the line. But there was, they just couldn’t come to
an agreement. So I’ve been trying to prepare for Francis [Ngannou].
I did a whole training camp preparing for Stipe. Now we got
Ciryl
Gane. I’ve been ready for a long time. I’ve been training
non-stop for three years, twice a day, some days three times a day.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for a really long time. Glad to
have an opponent.”
This past weekend, White revealed that Jones was supposed to face
Ngannou at UFC 285, but the promotion couldn’t come to terms with
the former heavyweight champion. Now, Ngannou is a free agent and
Jones will instead lock horns with Gane. Jones admits that Ngannou
was the more attractive matchup of the two.
“It does [take something away],” Jones said. “I feel like Francis
is the more intimidating of the two. I feel like just as far as
Americans go he’s more known in America. Francis was this big,
scary, intimidating man, where Ciryl is relatively unknown.
“Obviously, Francis had the belt. Taking it from him would’ve been
nice. … I think the fight that meant the most to me was fighting
Stipe
Miocic. That’s the fight that actually means the most to me,
because Stipe is the greatest heavyweight of all time. I’m not
looking past Ciryl Gane
at all.”
As far as the future goes, the 35-year-old Jones vows that he’ll
compete twice more in the UFC. What happens beyond that remains to
be seen.
“My immediate goal is to beat Ciryl Gane
and to beat Stipe
Miocic,” Jones said. “After that, it’ll be conversations with
the UFC to see what makes sense. But I am guaranteeing the fans at
least two more fights out of me.”