LAS VEGAS — It was late 2008 or early 2009 when the phone rang and a young fighter was on the other line. It was a promising light heavyweight who turned a lot of heads as a last-minute replacement in his UFC debut. He wanted to talk, so we met in the food court at a mall on The Strip.
' UFC debut came on Aug. 9, 2008 at UFC 87 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, against Andre Gusmao. He accepted the fight on two weeks' notice, replacing an injured Tomasz Drwal. He fought on the preliminaries and scored a unanimous decision win, 30-27 twice and 29-28.
Not long after that impressive debut, he wanted to speak, so we met at The Fashion Show Mall's food court, where he had a drink from Orange Julius. He was ebullient, optimistic and generally playful. He talked of his dreams of winning a championship and being a major player in the sport. He's shown himself to be a brilliant talent, maybe the greatest to have ever done it in this sport. But he's had many brushes with the law and clashes with people ranging from UFC management to other fighters to reporters to fans.
Jones has been so dominant for so long and no one really came close to him. His only loss came to Matt Hamill in 2009 when he was about to finish the fight and was disqualified for an illegal elbow. He should only have had a point deduction taken. The only bout he had that was ever close was his 2013 title defense against Alexander Gustafsson in Toronto, when after partying and largely not training, he fell down two rounds to zero and had to rally in the last three to save his title.
But he signed a new contract —"It's basically the same deal as before, just that they're paying me more," Jones said — and he built his body into a heavyweight. He did it carefully, strategically and scientifically. He's never been stronger and expects to weigh roughly 245 or 250 at Friday's weigh-in."It's a dream come true; just a dream come true," Jones said of the opportunity to fight for the heavyweight championship.
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