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By Cassandra Cousineau, LVSportsBiz.com UFC/MMA Writer
A fresh blanket of snow cascading across the mountainous landscape ringing the Las Vegas Valley provided an unusual morning backdrop Wednesday. You could tell this was not going to be a routine media day for Las Vegas-based UFC at its Apex facility.
Instead of the standard assigned gathering spot for reporters and photographers for a fight event’s media day, the MMA reporters were moved to a larger space, which allowed UFC to accommodate almost double the amount of tables and chairs needed during most fight weeks. This arrangement has only been done for three high-profile UFC fighters since Apex opened its doors off the 215 beltway –Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, and this week’s headliner, Jon Jones.
The former dominant 205-pound champ (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) makes his long — in fact, very long — awaited heavyweight debut when he faces Ciryl Gane (11-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for the vacant belt in Saturday’s UFC 285 headliner at T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip. Jones’ move up a weight class is also his first professional fight in 37 months. As he sat for media day, not the unusual weather, location and words of Jones were business as usual for one of UFC’s greatest fighters.
His return to competition is more than a heavyweight fight for UFC. Regarded as not just the best of his weight class, Jones is widely discussed as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. His clash with Alexander Gustafsson is already in the promotion’s Hall of Fame. He’s a keen, calculated, and ferocious competitor in the octagon.
Jones is also a very fallible human who has had colossal lapses of judgment in his personal life including an arrest related to public intoxication and a domestic violence incident during his last visit to Las Vegas.
You can see see my questions for Jones here.
Jones told the media he had a different motivation this time around. This stretch of his journey is guided by the perspective of all of his wins, and — perhaps, even more so — his losses. When LVSportsBiz.com asked him to specify, the room was quieted by one of the most introspective moments he’s had in front of a microphone.
“My motivation is to become the best man that I can be. Be a reflection of God’s love, his forgiveness, and ultimately, have fans from around the world come to see the Christ that’s inside of me.”
For some, the religious reflection might be new. However, Jones is a preacher’s kid. His father, Arthur, is a pastor at Mount Sinai Church of God in Christ in Binghamton, New York.
It’s worth noting that Jones’ candid monologue followed his refusal to answer a question regarding his last visit and subsequent arrest in Las Vegas, and a diatribe on essentially taking one for the team. He pounded his chest a bit, feeling vindicated, having been branded a “steroid cheat” for previous failed drug tests. Under a 2019 revision to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency rules that upped the threshold for prohibited substances to 100 picograms; those failed tests would no longer be valid.
“I took the bullet for this sport and Major League Baseball. I’m glad fighters in the future will get to avoid what I went through. It was hell being considered a steroid cheat,” Jones said. “I’m glad that people get to see clearly that I never was. I feel set free.”
Whether you buy it or not, Jones has this way to dial back the intense violent chaos he’s required to deliver as a professional fighter, and find centered, articulate and, lucid moments as a man. He continued, “None of us are perfect. All of us have ups and downs in life. I genuinely believe that my imperfections make me very relatable to a lot of people.”
A Jon Jones headlined fight hasn’t cracked the UFC top 10 in terms of highest grossing Pay Per Views. This new more personable version, and attempt to dominate a new weight class could change that.
It sounds like he’s looking to tie together being a champion inside of the cage to being one in his normal everyday life. “I’m excited to get a lot of things right eventually. You know, I’m 35 years old. I’m at the age where you can’t make a lot of excuses for downfalls and stuff like that. But, I am a young man, and I’m looking forward to the man I’m going to be in my 40s. I’m not saying I won’t make mistakes again in the future, but maybe the man I’m going to be in my 40’s, 45, or 50 years old I’m gonna be a man with a lot of experience. I’ll be able to talk to a lot of young men and tell them about things they don’t want to do, roads they don’t want to go down.”
Jones noted, “Ultimately, I do believe a few souls will be saved because of my existence. That is my motivation.”
Jones and Gane will settle things in the cage for heavyweight gold at UFC 285 on Saturday’s ESPN+ Pay-Per-View. The event will be held at T-Mobile arena live from Las Vegas.