Jon Jones, a champion in two weight classes who has never tasted a clean defeat in his MMA career that started in 2008. There’s hardly any doubt that he’s one of the greatest fighters ever, who took mixed martial arts to another level. Dana White cannot stop singing Jones’ praise since he has seen from the beginning how he has defeated generations of fighters in his entire career. However, even the greats have their moments of hesitation and fear as well.
Fighting is a demanding sport, especially when it comes to MMA. You get choked, get slept, and broken in any fight at any moment, and Jon Jones is well aware of that. The feeling of fear and doubt, which ‘Bones’ likes to call his “inner b—h,” has always been there in the 37-year-old’s mind since he first started competing. But to tackle that thought, he admits to himself the truth by “acknowledging that some days, I’m so sore.”
More importantly, Jon Jones has a really sincere and deep respect for the men and women on the front lines and in the armed forces. Even though there are risks to being a fighter, the UFC champion claims there are a lot more risks in defending the country. “I try to remind myself that there’s guys, you know, some of our military brothers and sisters, they get seriously injured. Not hurt, like a lot of us, civilians, but really injured. Their job is to get up and get out there, and get after it again,” Jones told Geoffrey Woo on his YouTube channel.
Claiming how terribly they have to live, without much rest and even losing people of their own in the line of service, the UFC champion tends to “remind” himself about the armed forces when his supposed “inner b—h” tries to bother him mentally. It’s a blessing for him that he’s living a much better and comfortable life than the armed forces personnel, who have put themselves on the line.
“Some of these guys have just fought the day before and, you know, they get less than 24 hours of rest, and then they got to get back after there and face the unknown,” Jon Jones further stated. “Some of these guys just lost a brother, you know, they have a fallen brother or sister… and then they have to re-regulate their emotional state and get back out there and do their job as if the rest of the family depends on them. So these are things that I remind myself.”
Madison Square Garden NEW YORK CITY, NY -NOVEMBER 16:Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic meet in the octagon for a 3-round bout for UFC309 – Jones vs Miocic at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, NY Photo by Louis Grasse/PxImages Louis Grasse / SPP PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxBRAxMEX Copyright: xLouisxGrassex/xSPPx spp-en-LoGr-lrg2411164283824_UFCVegas309
Jon Jones didn’t become a champion by complaining and taking shortcuts because every time he gets inside the Octagon, it’s there for the fans to see. He may have come even close to losing sometimes, but he prevailed and continues to dominate the MMA scene. But as we’ve already said, Jones feels ‘blessed’ that he can sleep without any worries and fulfil their life goals, all thanks to the armed forces of the United States of America.
“Instead of feeling hard on themselves, like, ‘Oh, my job is so hard,’ ‘My load is so tough to carry’, you just remind yourself that it’s actually a huge blessing to be in our position to be pursuing our dreams and getting compensated for it. [It] certainly helps keep things in perspective,” Jones added. Meanwhile, the UFC undisputed heavyweight champion once mentioned that his nervous energy heading into a fight actually works in his favor. Here’s what he had to say.
Jon Jones claims his nervousness has helped him win fights
Jon Jones often came across, during the 2010s, as a pretty confident and brash individual who doesn’t hesitate to take digs at his opponents. People might get the impression that he’s never worried about any of his opponents. Well, that’s actually wrong. Jones has been vocal about his nervousness a few times, especially when he fought ‘Rampage’ Jackson, but he won, and the champion claims that’s been the case for every fight he’s competed in.
“I talk about being confident in winning all the time, but the reason why I always win is because at the end of the day I’m more nervous than any other fighter,” Jon Jones told FOX Sports back in 2016. The nervous energy has been beneficial for Jones because it makes him study his opponents more and more so that he can strategize his fights as well as he can. And this, according to him, is his recipe for success.
“It causes me to spend every night until 3 o’clock in the morning just on my laptop watching the same damn fight over and over again with a notebook, thinking about the ways I can lose, thinking about what I need to do,” Jones added. “That’s really what I attribute to being undefeated all these years — how seriously I take it and how much I don’t know.” Well, if that’s the case, then it has certainly helped the 37-year-old because he’s still not slowing down even during his late 30s.
Well, what do you think about Jon Jones’s tactics in keeping his mental side strong? Drop your comments below.
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