āBonesā is set to defend his heavyweight title this weekend at Madison Square Garden.
Drew Beaupre | 19 Minutes Ago
Former UFC champion and current top featherweight contender Aljamain Sterling recently recounted a pre-fight night out with Jon Jones from early in their respective UFC careers.
āHe Was Fighting In Like Two Weeksā
A member of the UFC roster since 2014, āFunk Masterā won the bantamweight belt from Petr Yan at UFC 259 and went on to defend it three times before he was knocked out by Sean OāMalley at UFC 292 last year.
Sterling put on a dominant showing in his featherweight debut opposite Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 and is now set to meet the undefeated Movsar Evloev in a rebooked matchup at UFC 310 next month, and this week on The Ariel Helwani Show the 35-year-old shared a wild story about Jones ahead of the heavyweight championās fight with Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 this Saturday.
!(https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4534,h_3022,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_620,ar_3:2,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/mma_knockout/01jck222axyjhdcjpj40.jpg āEx-UFC Champ Recounts Night Out with Jon Jones - āThatās a Dangerous Personāā)
āHe offered me a couple shots at the bar, and I was fighting in like ā I think I told him four or five weeks, and he was fighting in like two weeks (laughs),ā Sterling explained. āThis is in the UFC, when we were in upstate New York. I was at Team Bomb Squad, he had just left down to New Mexico, down to [Jackson Wink MMA Academy]. And I was like āAm I doing something wrong?ā Somethingās not mathing, like the math aināt mathing right now. But then I watch him on TV, heās going out there and he obliterates the competion, And Iām like, āI think thereās something to be said about that.āā
āI Donāt Think Any Of That Is Going To Stop Youā
Jones has been nothing short of dominant in the majority of his outings in the UFC Octagon, but āBonesā has famously run into a myriad of legal issues outside of the cage that have threatened to derail his career at various points.
Many fans wondered if Jones would ever fight again after he vacated the UFC light heavyweight title in 2020 in order to move up to heavyweight, but after a more than three-year layoff the 37-year-old returned at UFC 285 last year and submitted Ciryl Gane to claim the vacant heavyweight belt.
!(https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1536,h_1024,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_620,ar_3:2,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/mma_knockout/01jcghsy2dyg9nqeycat.jpg āEx-UFC Champ Recounts Night Out with Jon Jones - āThatās a Dangerous Personāā)
āI think heās very meticulous in his preparation with getting the looks that he needs to see,ā Sterling told Helwani. āThe same way that he didnāt take the short-notice fight with Chael Sonnen. Heās not that guy. He wants to make sure heās got the utmost edge on you in terms of knowing you inside and out before heās accepting a fight, and knowing that he knows you better than you know yourself. And I think when you have someone whoās that dedicated to what theyāre trying to do ā thatās a dangerous personā¦I donāt know if a couple of drinks are gonna stop you. Coke, whatever it is, I donāt think any of that is gonna stop you. I think as long as youāre in shape, youāre ready to go.ā
Tom Aspinall likely wonāt want to hear any mention of Jonesā unwillingness to fight Sonnen on short notice at UFC 151, as the interim heavyweight champion is in New York this week as the backup fighter incase Jones or Miocic arenāt able to compete in the main event on Saturday night.
Thereās a chance theat UFC 309 might be the last time fans get to see āBonesā compete in the Octagon, but while heās been dismissive of the Aspinall fight it does seem like Jones might be open to sticking around for a showdown with current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira.
What the hell.
