Submission Underground 2 (SUG 2): Jon Jones vs. Dan HendersonNov 22, 2016 by Jeremy Botter
SUG 2: Jon Jones Career Retrospective
SUG 2: Jon Jones Career Retrospective
Jon Jones faces Dan Henderson at Submission Underground 2 in December.
By Sean Sheehan
In the brief history of mixed martial arts, a physical specimen like Jon Jones has been an extreme rarity.
With his two brothers Arthur and Chandler, Jon grew up in New York as part of a family always destined to achieve big things athletically. Both of his brothers became NFL stars and Jon became the pound-for-pound king of the UFC.
That path started for Jones, like many young American MMA fighters, in the wrestling room.
A state wrestling champion in his days at Union-Endicott High School in New York, Jones continued in the singlet through college. Wrestling for Iowa Central community college, Jones became a junior college national champion before then moving to Morrisville State College where he ended up dropping out to pursue a career inside the cage.
As things turned out, that decision ended up being a smart one.
In his first thirteen days as a professional, Jones had already earned himself three wins. Within two months he had three more and was signed by the UFC.
Jones made his debut inside the Octagon at UFC 87 in a winning effort against Andre Gusmao. But it was his second outing, against veteran Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94, which opened many people's eyes to the kind of talent they were dealing with.
Bonnar held an impressive 12-4 record at the time and was still highly thought of; he'd taken part in one of the greatest fights ever with Forrest Griffin a few years previous to that. And although Jones went to a decision with Bonnar, the level at which he was progressing was fascinating to see.
In his next outing he took his record to 9-0 with his first finish inside the Octagon against Jake O'Brien at UFC 100.
By now Jones had begun working with famed trainers Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn and everything was looking up. That was until his fight with Matt Hamill ended with Jones being controversially disqualified following a couple of 12-to-6 elbows when Jones had the fight all but won.
To this day, that remains his only loss in MMA.
Wins over Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader followed that before Jones was given a title shot when his then-teammate Rashad Evans pulled out injured.
He had only a month to prepare for the bout with PRIDE legend and reigning UFC champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. But that was all he needed to finish Rua by TKO. The win earned Jones not only the UFC's light-heavyweight title, but also the distinction of being the UFC's youngest champion ever.
It was the beginning of a reign which turned out to be extremely impressive inside the cage. Impressive wins over Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans cemented Jones as the best light heavyweight in the world.
In 2012, Jones was due to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 151. But when "Hendo" was injured, Jones refused to fight Chael Sonnen on short notice. That lead to the UFC cancelling an event for the very first time in its history. Jones ended up fighting Vitor Belfort at UFC 152 and was almost submitted in round one of that fight when the Brazilian locked on an armbar. To his credit, Jones managed to escape and submitted Belfort himself in the fourth round.
A one round demolition of Chael Sonnen followed that before Jones took on Alexander Gustafsson in arguably the greatest fight the world has ever seen. Again he emerged on the winning side, but it was by far the closest he has ever come to a legitimate loss with Gustafsson unable to sustain his early success in the fight. Glover Teixeira then took Jones five rounds as well but that one was much more of a blowout.
In the two years since that Jones has managed only two fights due to a spate of off-the-canvas incidents.
Before his fight with arch-rival Daniel Cormier, there was a mass brawl between the pair at a press event which ended with punches, shoes and Dave Sholler being thrown in all directions. After an initial postponement the fight did eventually happen at UFC 182, where Jones came out as the clear victor.
Since then, Jones has competed just one time, against Ovince St. Preux. He is currently serving a 12-month suspension after failing a random drug test prior to UFC 200 last summer.
In the brief history of mixed martial arts, a physical specimen like Jon Jones has been an extreme rarity.
With his two brothers Arthur and Chandler, Jon grew up in New York as part of a family always destined to achieve big things athletically. Both of his brothers became NFL stars and Jon became the pound-for-pound king of the UFC.
That path started for Jones, like many young American MMA fighters, in the wrestling room.
A state wrestling champion in his days at Union-Endicott High School in New York, Jones continued in the singlet through college. Wrestling for Iowa Central community college, Jones became a junior college national champion before then moving to Morrisville State College where he ended up dropping out to pursue a career inside the cage.
As things turned out, that decision ended up being a smart one.
In his first thirteen days as a professional, Jones had already earned himself three wins. Within two months he had three more and was signed by the UFC.
Jones made his debut inside the Octagon at UFC 87 in a winning effort against Andre Gusmao. But it was his second outing, against veteran Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94, which opened many people's eyes to the kind of talent they were dealing with.
Bonnar held an impressive 12-4 record at the time and was still highly thought of; he'd taken part in one of the greatest fights ever with Forrest Griffin a few years previous to that. And although Jones went to a decision with Bonnar, the level at which he was progressing was fascinating to see.
In his next outing he took his record to 9-0 with his first finish inside the Octagon against Jake O'Brien at UFC 100.
By now Jones had begun working with famed trainers Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn and everything was looking up. That was until his fight with Matt Hamill ended with Jones being controversially disqualified following a couple of 12-to-6 elbows when Jones had the fight all but won.
To this day, that remains his only loss in MMA.
Wins over Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader followed that before Jones was given a title shot when his then-teammate Rashad Evans pulled out injured.
He had only a month to prepare for the bout with PRIDE legend and reigning UFC champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. But that was all he needed to finish Rua by TKO. The win earned Jones not only the UFC's light-heavyweight title, but also the distinction of being the UFC's youngest champion ever.
It was the beginning of a reign which turned out to be extremely impressive inside the cage. Impressive wins over Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans cemented Jones as the best light heavyweight in the world.
In 2012, Jones was due to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 151. But when "Hendo" was injured, Jones refused to fight Chael Sonnen on short notice. That lead to the UFC cancelling an event for the very first time in its history. Jones ended up fighting Vitor Belfort at UFC 152 and was almost submitted in round one of that fight when the Brazilian locked on an armbar. To his credit, Jones managed to escape and submitted Belfort himself in the fourth round.
A one round demolition of Chael Sonnen followed that before Jones took on Alexander Gustafsson in arguably the greatest fight the world has ever seen. Again he emerged on the winning side, but it was by far the closest he has ever come to a legitimate loss with Gustafsson unable to sustain his early success in the fight. Glover Teixeira then took Jones five rounds as well but that one was much more of a blowout.
In the two years since that Jones has managed only two fights due to a spate of off-the-canvas incidents.
Before his fight with arch-rival Daniel Cormier, there was a mass brawl between the pair at a press event which ended with punches, shoes and Dave Sholler being thrown in all directions. After an initial postponement the fight did eventually happen at UFC 182, where Jones came out as the clear victor.
Since then, Jones has competed just one time, against Ovince St. Preux. He is currently serving a 12-month suspension after failing a random drug test prior to UFC 200 last summer.