Jones, John (fighter)

Jonathan Jones was born July 19, 1987 in Rochester , New York , USA. He grew up in the city of Endicott, New York. Engaged in American football, like his brothers Arthur and Chandler, and freestyle wrestling. While in high school, Jones was a wrestling champion. At Iowa Central College, he received a league title. He soon dropped out of college, where he studied law, to begin his career in mixed martial arts .

Jones made his debut in professional MMA in April 2008. He scored 6 victories in three months, not having received a single defeat. Jones finished each fight ahead of schedule, thanks to this the UFC organization paid attention to the fighter. In his last fight, before signing the contract with the UFC, Jones defeated Moses Gabin in the BCX 5 light heavyweight. He won by technical knockout in the second round and received the title of USKBA champion.

UFC

Jones debuted in the UFC on August 9, 2008. He went out against Andre Gusmao , capoeira master, at UFC 87 . Jones won by unanimous decision, demonstrating an extraordinary shock technique.

In his second fight, Jones fought Stefan Bonnard at UFC 94 . The battle took place on January 31, 2009. Jones proved to be an excellent wrestler, working perfectly in the stalls and performing powerful throws, including a deflection throw. As in the debut fight, Jones again showed his amazing elbow punch, thanks to which he almost knocked out his opponent in the first round. But, despite all attempts to end the fight ahead of schedule, the fight lasted all three rounds, and John won by unanimous decision.

The third fight took place on July 11, 2009 at the anniversary UFC 100 , his opponent was Jake O'Brien. Jones controlled most of the battle, preferring not to engage in grappling and avoid any attempts by his opponent to takedown. John kept his distance and used his superiority in arm span (the largest in the UFC). In the middle of the second round, Jones strangled the guillotine, which led to victory.

In September 2009, Jones signed a new four-year contract with the UFC.

December 5, 2009 at the UFC: The Ultimate Finale 10, John Jones met with Matt Hamill. For the first half of the meeting, Jones worked in the rack, then transferred the fight to the ground and for a minute hammered Hamill with his elbows, but the referee did not stop the fight. Despite his dominant position, Jones was disqualified for a forbidden strike using a sharp point on his elbow.

The next fight was at UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones March 21, 2010 vs. Brandon Vera. In the fourth minute of the first round, Jones struck an accurate elbow in the stalls, followed by a hail of punches towards the opponent. As a result, the battle was stopped. Jones also received the Knockout of the Night Award.

On August 1, 2010, the UFC Live - on Versus 2 tournament took place, in the main battle of which Vladimir Matyushenko and John Jones met. “I think Matyushenko is too underestimated. I have seen and reviewed several times his many fights, and I can say that he is a very strong fighter with great experience. In my opinion, Vladimir is tougher than Brandon Vera and Matt Hamill, ”said John Jones before the start of the tournament. Jones went to this fight as a clear favorite. Few people bet Matyushenko to win. This time, the forecasts came true. Jones confidently won by TKO. The fight began in the rack, then Jones transferred the opponent to the ground. Matyushenko tried to hold a pain arm, but Jones managed to break free and carry out the finishing. The referee stopped the fight at around 1:52 of the first round.

After another victory, John had to fight with the winner of the Nogueira-Bader pair. In addition, Dana White promised him after the next two victories to provide a fight for the title. As a result, Jones' next fight took place at UFC 126, and Ryan Bader, who had no defeat at that time, became his rival. At the end of the second round, Jones transferred the fight to the stalls, and then successfully held a strangulation, thanks to which he was awarded the “Pain of the evening” bonus.

During a post-match interview with John Jones, after his defeat of Ryan Bader at UFC 126, Joe Rogan announced that Rashad Evans injured his knee during training. Jones was then told that the UFC wants him to replace Evans in a fight with Mauricio Roi in the main fight for the UFC light heavyweight title. Jones accepted the offer, and this fight was scheduled for this event.

Light Heavyweight Champion

On March 19, UFC 128 took place in Newark, the main event of which was the fight between light heavyweight champion Mauricio Roy and John Jones. Jones from the very beginning of the fight took possession of the advantage and brought the fight to victory by technical knockout in the third round. Jones, 23, became the youngest UFC champion ever.

Title Defenses

On April 21, 2012, the third title defense against former friend and teammate Jones Rashad Evans took place, the fight lasted all five rounds and ended with John winning by unanimous decision, so he once again defended his UFC light heavyweight title.

At a press conference after UFC 145, Dana White announced that Dan Henderson will be Jones' next rival. Jones' fight with Henderson was supposed to take place at UFC 151, but Henderson was injured and dropped out of the fight. Henderson was replaced by Chail Sonnen. Jones abandoned this fight. UFC 151 was subsequently canceled. The next defense, Jones was supposed to hold against Lyoto Machida September 22, 2012 at UFC 152. Machida refused to fight due to lack of time for preparation. In the end, Jones defended the title against Vitor Belfort at UFC 152. Despite the fact that Jones fell on the elbow lever in the first round, he managed to get out of the grab and defeat in the fourth round. Thus, he set an amazing record: five conquered former UFC champions in a row (Maurici Roy, Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort).

At UFC 159, Jones knocked out Chale Sonnen in the first round. In one episode of the battle, Jones dislocated his thumb on his left foot. After this victory, Jones caught up with Tito Ortiz in the UFC light heavyweight title defenses.

On September 21, 2013, at UFC 165, Jones once again defended his league title against Alexander Gustaffson. During the first round, Jones received a serious dissection above the eye, but continued to compete and ultimately won the match in a controversial unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47 and 49-46). After the fight, Jones stated that Gustaffson gave him the hardest fight of his career.

On April 26, 2014, Jones defended his title for the 7th time in his career, defeating Glover to Teicher by unanimous decision.

On January 3, 2015, John Jones defended the champion title for the 8th time, defeating Daniel Cormier by unanimous decision, who at that time had no defeat in his career.

Suspension

Jones planned to hold the next (ninth in a row) title defense against Anthony Johnson on May 23, 2015 in Las Vegas at UFC 187.

However, on April 27, John was in a car accident , injuring a pregnant woman and hiding from the scene of an accident. Marijuana and documents in the name of Jones were found in the car. The next day, he confessed to the police, after which he was released on bail of $ 2,500 before the trial. New Mexico State Police accused John Jones of leaving the scene of an accident, which threatened him with three years in prison. The UFC management decided to disqualify the athlete for an indefinite period and deprive him of the light heavyweight champion title.

Daniel Cormier, who lost to Jones at UFC 182 in January 2015, replaced him with UFC 187 in a fight against Anthony Johnson, defeating whom he became the new light heavyweight champion.

John Jones pleaded guilty to the crime and received 18 months of probation.

The judge ordered Jones to commit 72 acts of charity and conduct conversations with the children. When Jones' probationary period comes to an end, his punishment will be reviewed taking into account whether he complied with the conditions of his conditional release.

Note that UFC president Dana White flew in to support Jones in Albuquerque .

“I'm here to take full responsibility for my actions,” Jones told the court. “I hope you give me a chance to rehabilitate.”

Return

Since November 2015, he has been officially reinstated as a UFC fighter and added to the pound-for-pound rating. Jones has repeatedly stated that Dana White offered him a fight, but he refused because he was in "big trouble", but the USADA anti-doping company denied these rumors, since they did not allow him to fight. Jones' punishment was revised, and his suspension was canceled at the end of 2015, in connection with which he received permission to participate in the battles. He was immediately returned to the first line of the pound-for-pound UFC rating. Jones immediately got a chance to return his belt, which he had been deprived of earlier. At UFC 197, Jones was supposed to fight for the belt with reigning champion Daniel Cormier , but he was injured, and Jones got into a duel with Ovins Saint-Prue , speaking on a short notice, in which he won by unanimous decision and received the title of interim champion light heavyweight. Next, John was supposed to meet with champion Daniel Cormier at the UFC 200 , which took place on July 9, 2016.

Anti-Doping Policy Violation

On July 7, 2016, the U.S. anti-doping agency notified the UFC of a potential violation by John Jones of an organization’s anti-doping policy identified during an out-of-competition test held on June 16, 2016. Later it became known that John Jones was caught on an estrogen blocker. As a result, the main event of the evening at the UFC 200 tournament failed. Recall that Jones was to meet with Daniel Cormier for the second time.

Jones convened a press conference where, with tears in his eyes, he declared that he did not consider himself guilty of using doping.

“First of all, I want to apologize to all the fans who came to the UFC 200 to support me. I want to apologize to Daniel Cormier. I know that this fight means a lot to him, as it does to me. I do not know what to say. I'm sorry this happened. This is terrible. They say that they found something from me, but I do not know what it is. I can’t even pronounce it. I am against doping, and it is terrible that I was accused of using it. This is the worst thing that has happened in my career. ”

The USADA Commission removed John from the competition until the moment when the full hearing on the use of doping by a fighter takes place. The date of the hearing will be determined later, but it is reported that they will be held in October.

Jones faces a two-year suspension. The Commission decided to remove John Jones for one year

A special commission ruled on the failure of John Jones anti-doping testing. Recall that in the body of Jones was discovered hydroxy-clomiphene and metabolites of letrozole, which is an aromatase inhibitor, that is, it inhibits the action of the enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen.

November 7, 2016 it became known that the USADA removed John Jones from the fighting for 1 year for the use of doping.

On September 13, 2017, the results of the “B” test were announced on a doping test taken immediately before the fight with Daniel Cormier. Test “B” confirmed the presence of the steroid drug Turinabol in the body of John Jones.

• Ultimate Fighting Championship
  • UFC Light Heavyweight Champion (twice, current)
  • Ten successful title defenses
  • UFC light heavyweight interim champion (once)
  • Winner of the Best Fight of the Evening Award (four times) against Quinton Jackson , Lyoto Machida , Alexander Gustafsson , Daniel Cormier
  • Winner of the Best Knockout of the Night Award (Once) vs. Brandon Vera
  • Winner of the Evening Pain Award (two times) against Ryan Bader , Vitor Belfort
  • Speech of the Evening Award Winner (Once) vs. Daniel Cormier
• United States Kickboxing Association
  • USKBA Light Heavyweight Champion (Once)

• Официальный сайт Джона Джонса (англ.)
• Профиль на сайте UFC (англ.)
• Джонс, Джон (боец) (англ.) — статистика профессиональных боёв на сайте Sherdog