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By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist Name: Jon "Bones" Jones
Professional MMA Record: 8-0, UFC light-heavyweight
Biography: Born July 19, 1987 in Rochester, New York, Jon Jones was raised in Endicott, New York along with his athletic brothers, Arthur and Chandler. While the brothers currently play football at Syracuse University and Jon is a rising star in the world of mixed-martial-arts, Jon claims he's not the athlete his brothers are.
Despite always being picked first in pick-up basketball games, Jones says that wasn't his world. Wrestling, however, did suit him quite well. He was a state champion his senior year at Union-Endicott High School and a Junior College National Champion at Iowa Central Community College, where he earned his Associate's Degree. He had plans to pursue higher education, but his competitive itch was too much.
In wrestling, he was never content to grind out wins on the mat, preferring to take his opponents down, score the points, let them up, rinse, repeat, etc... He was well suited for MMA, where he could also use striking to beat his opponents.
He honed his striking skills in an unusual way; reading books about it from the local book store and watching YouTube to find any techniques he could pick up. A short time later, he made his professional MMA debut on April 12, 2008, a decision likely hastened by the impending birth of his daughter. It was a success. He stopped Brad Bernard with strikes just a minute and a half into their bout. From there, things didn't slow down.
Fighting on a near weekly basis, Jones quickly pushed his record to 6-0 following another TKO stoppage over Moyses Gabin in the second round of their July 12th fight. Shortly afterward, Jones received a call asking if he would take a fight on short notice against Andre Gusmao, replacing Tomasz Drwal at UFC 87 on August 9th. So less than four months after his professional debut, Jones was set to make his UFC debut. Again, it was a success. Using his unorthodox striking and superior Greco-Roman wrestling, Jones outworked the more experienced and favored Gusmao on his way to a unanimous decision victory.
The span of time between Jones' seventh and eighth fights was about the same length as between his first and seventh fights. Finally he took a breather and got to work on his game for a few months. He returned on January 31st of this year at UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn in a much more high profile fight against Stephan Bonnar. The result was the same. Despite tiring in the third round, Jones nearly knocked Bonnar out cold with a spinning back elbow, and generally tossed Bonnar around the cage whenever the two would clinch. Two fights in the UFC, two unanimous decision victories.
Jones is set for his third fight in the Octagon, July 11th against Jake O'Brien at UFC 100. If he wins, it'll likely be the last time we see him on the undercard for sometime, maybe ever.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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