Jon Jones has attempted to explain why his final few title defences weren’t as dominant as what we’d previously seen from him.
The former light-heavyweight champion edged past Dominick Reyes at UFC 257 earlier this year in somewhat controversial circumstances. Prior to that he picked up a split decision win over Thiago Santos and coasted to victory against Anthony Smith.
After three underwhelming performances Jones relinquished his 205lb belt and announced his plan to compete at heavyweight.
In an interview with ESPN, Jones explained why his light-heavyweight run had to come to an end.
“The light heavyweight division was fun, but I just wasn’t scared of those guys anymore,” Jones said. “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.
Ahead of his eagerly anticipated heavyweight debut Jones explained that he has got that fear factor back and is looking forward to competing against the likes of Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou who are set to clash for UFC gold in early 2021.
“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 is currently weighing up the potential heavyweight opponents and is wrestling with the idea of trying to win the belt in his first bout in the division.
“I go back and forth,” Jones said. “Sometimes I think I should take like a top-10 guy [at heavyweight] and just get my feet wet, figure out what’s happening. And then the other times, I think, ‘F— it. Let’s just go big or go home.’ I’m trying to get these big-money fights these days. I like taking care of everybody around me.”
Do you think Jon Jones will win the UFC heavyweight title?