(photo via UFC.com)
After another first round stoppage, Jon “Bones” Jones really looks unbeatable right now. It took him all of 1:56 seconds to stop opponent Vladimir Matyushenko in last nights main event in San Diego as part of the UFC on Versus 2 show.
Speaking to the media at the post fight press conference, Jones said he’s still maturing as a fighter and that he’s hoping to be matched up with one of the top three fighters in the division. He also noted that there is one fight that he’d take at heavyweight and that is against boxer James Toney, who made some recent comments towards Jones.
MMAJunkie.com has the transcript.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do, and there’s a quote that says, ‘A real black belt is a black belt because he’s aware of how much he doesn’t know.’ I’m just aware that I’m still a kid in this sport, and I have a lot more maturing to do as a man and as an athlete. I’m just going to stay on the ground.”
“Every opponent I’ve had are really tough guys,” Jones said. “Right now, I’m passing these tests with flying colors. I really don’t want to sound arrogant, so I’ve got to be careful the way I word this, but I want to fight someone who’s really going to give me a really tough test. That has to be the champion or whoever. I want to fight someone who’s supposedly much better than me … so I can really step up and evolve to a different level.
“There’s the champion (Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua), and he’s the toughest guy right now. He’s very well-rounded. He’s a great striker. Just like the top three contenders. I really want to push myself against the No. 1, 2 and 3 guys now. I really feel like that needs to happen. The top three guys are the guys I’d like to fight – except for (teammate) Rashad (Evans), obviously.”
“Randy Couture, he bumps up to heavyweight all the time, and he always looks very impressive against the slower guy,” Jones said. “And now I actually have a heavyweight that I wouldn’t mind fighting. That’s James Toney – ‘Mr. I’m going to slap Jon in the face.’ I’d bump up for that fight any day.”
Depending on how Toney does against Couture, this could be an interesting matchup as well as another test for Jones in his young career.