Jon Jones knows his greatest rival is his own demons outside the Octagon
It's hard to imagine a more impressive résumé in MMA history than what Jon Jones has amassed through his first 22 fights as a professional.
Jones won the light heavyweight in 2011 and defended the belt eight times while defeating four former UFC champions and virtually every contender the UFC could throw at him over the past five years.
Unfortunately, Jones' name has been in the headlines almost as often for his exploits outside the cage as what he's done with his fight career. From a car crash that resulted in a DUI to a positive drug test for cocaine to a hit-and-run accident saw Jones stripped of his title and suspended for several months, he's faced just as much adversity in his personal life as he's ever taken on inside the Octagon.
That's why as Jones approaches his upcoming fight with Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197, he's not concerned about adding more accolades to his career accomplishments -- he just wants to stop racking up incidents outside the cage that continue to tarnish his legacy.
"The only thing I need to do is do the right things outside of the Octagon. I could never fight again and be put in the Hall of Fame and I'm not saying that to sound arrogant but we all know it's true," Jones said on the UFC 197 conference call just recently. "I have to continue to do the right things outside of the Octagon. That's it. Me retiring and nobody ever hearing about me in the news again, that's a huge victory for me. I'm going to try my hardest to make sure that happens.
"Outside of that, in terms of actually fighting, I don't really feel I have much to prove to anybody. I've done some pretty amazing things in this sport and fighting is a journey. You have your ups and downs, you have your wins, you have losses. Fortunately, I've never lost but wins and losses at this point in my career don't really define who I am. I think I'm a champion for the rest of my life. What's going to define who I am is how I get my life under control outside of fighting."
It's hard to argue with Jones' logic considering his place in history seems secured with the way he's run through the light heavyweight division during his UFC career.
Even during his absence of the past year, Jones has maintained his position as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport and many would argue he's already near the top of the list for the greatest fighters of all time.
It's part of the reason why Jones isn't worried about staking his claim once again when he fights on Saturday night because in many ways he never left that top spot even while he was gone.
"Honestly, I'm very confident who I am in this sport. I know that I've done amazing things in this sport and at the end of the day, fighting is a journey. It's a journey that I'm on. I'm not really fighting to prove much to others, I'm just fighting to prove to myself," Jones explained. "I want career longevity and I want to stay ahead of my division. I feel as if I've worked on a lot of things to progress. My coach Greg Jackson always says 'Jon, you can't fight the war of yesterday, you've got to always have new moves, you've got to always have a new style, you've got to always bring something new to every fight'.
"So I'm just trying to prove to myself that I have in fact gotten a lot better and this fight is going to tell me a lot of where I'm at right now. I feel like I've gotten better since I've been going and hopefully we all see that. Proving it to myself mainly that I've progressed."
It's been a rocky road for Jones throughout a large part of his career since first winning the UFC title in 2011.
Jones won't ignore the mistakes he's made or pretend they didn't happen because those incidents will likely haunt him for quite some time.
In fact, Jones shared stories about his shortcomings over and over again during a series of court mandated public appearances where he spoke to kids all over New Mexico about the pitfalls of making poor decisions that can nearly ruin your life.
Jones knows how close he came to having everything he's worked for taken away and that's why he's resolute in never repeating history again.
"I think at the end of the day when my story is written and it's all done, I will be looked at as a role model because of the way that I come out of all this stuff," Jones said. "My story's far from over and that's something that I'm very well aware of. Right now, I'm in the process of writing a book and I could be at the beginning of the book still so the little hiccups they don't define me. I just know that I have a lot of work to do to make sure the end is something powerful. Something that people can look at up to and draw strength from in the future.
"People will be able to say 'Jon Jones went through a lot, that kid struggled with drugs and partying and fame and money and all these things came at him at a young age and he was a little bit of a wild boy but look at him today'. I just can't wait for that part of the story to start to take place. I'm not there yet, but it's coming. Mark my words."
