UFC champ Jon Jones reveals which title fight taught him about toughness & 'grit'

Jon Jones May Never Fight Again

In an interview with Vic Blends, Jones gave a raw, uncut perspective about how the fight made him look inside himself when it looked as if he might lose as the championship rounds progressed.

"In that fight, things did not go the way I expected," Jones said. 

Although the September 2013 five-round war is etched in UFC history forever, it wasn’t sunshine and rainbows for Jones.

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"I couldn't stop his jab. I hadn't prepared for a low jab; he was jabbing me to the stomach, and I had never prepared for that," Jones said. "He was a lot more confident than I expected him to be. He was in my face, and he was a person who was expecting to win. I had to pull from something that I didn't realize I had. I had a tenacity, and resilience, and a grit that I didn't realize I had."

Jones dug deep to earn the decision win, but looking back, it taught him much more: toughness.

“I couldn't talk," Jones said. " I couldn't eat. I couldn't use the bathroom on my own. That was one of the fights where I had really realized how seriously I had to take each and every opponent, that I could never get too big for my britches, because there's always somebody that's nipping at our toes. That fight taught me a lot about the seriousness of preparation."

Jones never endured a situation to that extreme again, learning a valuable lesson about preparation.

Most importantly, it serves as a strict reminder that fighting isn’t for the faint of heart.

Twelve years later, Jones is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time. 

He may have one more left. He might not, but nevertheless, his greatness can’t be overstated.

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