Ex-UFC champion talks about night out with Jon Jones

Former UFC champion and current top featherweight contender Aljamain Sterling recently opened up about a pre-fight night with Jon Jones from early in their respective UFC careers.

A member of the UFC roster since 2014, “Funk Master” won the bantamweight belt from Petr Yan at UFC 259 and defended it three times before being knocked out by Sean O’Malley at UFC 292 last year.

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Sterling put on a dominant display in his featherweight debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 and is now set to meet undefeated Movsar Evloev in a rebooked bout at UFC 310 next month and this week at The Ariel Helwani Show the 35-year-old shared a wild story about Jones ahead of the heavyweight champion’s fight with Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last Saturday.

“He offered me a couple shots at the bar, and I was fighting – I think I told him four or five weeks, and he was fighting within two weeks (laughs),” Sterling explained. “This is in the UFC, when we were in upstate New York. I was with Team Bomb Squad, he had just left for New Mexico, to (Jackson Wink MMA Academy). And I thought, ‘Am I doing something wrong?’ Something is not mathematics, just as mathematics is not mathematics at this moment. But then I watch him on TV, he goes out there and he destroys the competition. And I think, ‘I think there’s something to be said about that.’

Jones has been downright dominant during the majority of his appearances in the UFC Octagon, but “Bones” has encountered a host of legal issues outside the cage that threatened to derail his career at several points.

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Many fans wondered if Jones would ever fight again after giving up the UFC light heavyweight title in 2020 to move up to heavyweight, but after a more than three-year layoff, the 37-year-old returned to UFC 285 last year and filed in Ciryl Gane claims the vacant heavyweight belt.

“I think he is very meticulous in his preparation to get the looks he needs,” Sterling told Helwani. “The same way he didn’t take the short fight with Chael Sonnen. He’s not that guy. He wants to make sure he has the biggest advantage over you in terms of knowing you inside and out before accepting a fight, and knowing that he knows you better than you know yourself. And I think when you have someone who is so committed to what he’s trying to do, that’s a dangerous person… I don’t know if a few drinks will stop you. Coke, whatever it is, I don’t think this will stop you. I think as long as you’re in shape, you’re good to go.”

Tom Aspinall probably won’t want to hear any mention of Jones’ reluctance to fight Sonnen at UFC 151 on short notice, as the interim heavyweight champion is in New York this week as a backup fighter in case Jones or Miocic can’t compete. in the main event on Saturday night.

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There’s a chance that UFC 309 will be the last time fans see “Bones” compete in the Octagon, but despite turning down the Aspinall fight, it appears Jones is open to a showdown with current UFC Light. Heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

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