UFC
Jon Jones hopes to get back into his creative "zone" in UFC 172 Title defense against Glover Teixeira
Feb 8, 2014 - 11:10:54 AM Jon Jones hopes to get back into his creative "zone" in UFC 172 Title defense against Glover Teixeira

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones had one of the best fights in several years last September in his five round battle with Alexander Gustafsson, scraping by with a close, yet earned, decision victory. It was a difficult test against a very good challenger, and Jones was made to look more human than superhero, as he had against many of his previous Championship foes.

Jones felt that as well. In a recent media day in Baltimore to promote April's UFC 172 event, where he'll fight Glover Teixeira, Jones said that he wasn't able to get into his normal "zone" during the Gustafsson fight. He still managed to win the fight, but he didn't feel he performed at his best.

"I honestly believe, as an artist, as a creative artist, that it's not always in our control the way our performances are," Jones said (transcribed via Trent Reinsmith at BloodyElbow.com). "I believe there's an energy that comes over an artist that watches over them. Like being in the zone, you can't always control being in the zone or even getting into the zone. You can be a person that trains every day, eats healthy, [be] so dedicated and just not get in the zone the right way, and that zone is something that's kind of out of my control."

"[After the fight] my family said, 'Jon, when you walk out the Octagon we get this feeling that something cool is about to happen. We feel like a power', and they were saying 'we just didn't feel it from you. You just came out bland, flat, dry, you had nothing,'" Jones continued. "I felt like I had nothing. I went out there and I performed very dry, very going through the motions, and that's how I felt the entire time."

"I had an opponent that was out there, young, same age as me, same height as me, extremely ambitious, trying to win the fight, training his hardest, and he still came up short," Jones said. "What that lets me know is that even when I'm not at my best I still have the heart to find a way. I kicked it up into that championship gear that all champions do have and found a way."

Jones believes he'll be able to find that zone into this fight with Teixeira, and hopes to get back to the types of performances that brought him to the top at 205 lbs. He also talked about getting back to the type of creativity in his fights that he's been known for, and that was somewhat missing in the Gustafsson fight.

"What I'm hoping is that with this Glover fight I'll be back to my usual self, totally in the zone and have a dominating victory like I used to," Jones said. "There's standard moves, and then there's just being creative, creating a move that's never been seen, doing funky things that people just don't do, and that's where you get the art. Seeing what your opponent is going to do, just being able to see things before they happen, that's the art."

"The creative side, and the work ethic side, they match, and that's where masterpieces are created. That's when those fights are created where you didn't even get hit, and it seemed like those things came easy to you, and I felt like I had that my whole career except for that last fight. So, what I'm excited to see is my zone coming back."

Penick's Analysis: Jones is highly intelligent in this fight game, and when it comes to creativity there probably isn't anyone who does it better. That's why he was so exciting to watch on the rise as he made his way up to title contention, and it's obviously something he wants to be able to continue pulling off in the cage. Gustafsson didn't really allow him to put any of that in play, and a lot of credit must be given to the challenger in that fight for assisting in keeping Jones out of his zone as well. Will we see something different in the Teixeira fight? Perhaps. Many will hope for it and anticipate a return to form, and he'll get a chance to showcase that on April 26.

[Jon Jones art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]