The Joe Rogan Experience - #880 - Jon Jones

Episode Date: December 1, 2016

Jon Jones is an American mixed martial artist and a two-time former Light Heavyweight Champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He will compete against Dan Henderson in a submission grappling match at Submission Underground 2 on Sunday, Dec. 11, in Portland, Oregon.

Got a publicist with you, huh? Yeah, she didn't want me to do this without, at least. Definitely don't chew that on the air. Boom! We're live. People are going to get mad at you, you chewing that on the air. They're hearing it right now. They're like, God damn it, Jon Jones. Almost finished.

You had all this time. Almost finished. You're going to finish that fucking thing. That's an athlete. That's someone who works out a lot. There's imperatives, right? You've got to get that food in there. Nutrition is key. It is key, but that's shit. What are you eating you eating what is that a kind bar thing that's all bullshit oh it is but is that a good one is that one ones with the five grams of sugar or one of them

caramel fake candy bar type yeah five grams of sugar definitely a little closer to that john jones how you doing brother on the road you know okay i understand i gotta get you some stuff to bring with you man bring some good ones you ever uh A little closer to that. Jon Jones, how you doing, brother? I'm on the road, you know. I understand. I got to get you some stuff to bring with you, man. Bring some good ones. You ever fuck with that guy Primal Kitchen, his stuff? He's got some great stuff. I'll give you some before you leave.

I'd love to try it. Yeah. You're doing the number one thing that people get mad at on this podcast. When we do Fight Companion podcast, it's chewing. People get furious. So sorry. There's something about being in someone's ear like my daughter was in my ear last night and she was chewing she's trying to sit on my lap and she was chewing in my ear and i'm like this should not be bothering me

like why is this bothering me i was having an internal dialogue i'm like honey you're eating in my ear and to her she's like what do you give a fuck? So I'm eating in your ear. I'm your baby, you asshole. What do you give a shit? How old was your kid? This one that was on my lap was six. Aw. That's my youngest. I have three.

Oh, great. I got a 20, I got an eight, and I got a six. You got a 20-year-old? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Good for you. How many you got?

I have four. Whoa. John Jones. Yep. Eight. I went nine, eight, six, and three. All girls. It's crazy, right?

Yep, I want a son so bad. Jeremy Stevens says it's the fighter's curse. I've heard that. Yeah. Badasses get all girls. Mark Coleman, all girls. Yep. I think Don Fry's got all girls.

Yeah, I want a son. So there's a surgery that you can do. Uh-oh. Where I guess they take my semen and they take out all the girl, like all the girl hormones or whatever, chromosomes, inject it into the wife, gives you like a 90 something percent chance of getting a little boy. Really? Uh huh. Is that legit?

Have you Googled it? I've heard a lot about it. I haven't Googled it, but if it's a possibility, I think we're going in that direction for the next one. Yeah. See, that's one of those things that I would Google. I would make sure that it's not some horse shit created by some dude who just wants to collect your sperm.

I feel like I think I heard Kanye did that to get a boy the second time. Oh, yeah? In Kim, yeah. I don't know. I was going to look into it extensively before even trying to go in that direction, but that's the plan. Hopefully it's real. Wouldn't you think in some way, now I'm not really too much of a spiritual,

well, I wouldn't say I'm spiritual, but I don't believe in, I don't, how do I phrase this? Would you worry that you would anger the gods by trying to fuck with DNA? That's so funny. That's a great question. So I actually thought that, you know, because obviously I'm a religious guy. I thought that my theory has always been God is going to give me a son when I am mature enough to raise a man, to teach a man how to be a man. So that was always my thing.

And I felt like I felt like God was waiting for me to get married before giving me and my fiancé this boy. That's deep. And, yeah, that was my whole theory. I was just like, when I'm mature enough and, you know, when we're married, you know, God feels like we're in this good place. He's going to give us a boy. And then I'm thinking, you know, what if we have another girl? That trial and error is so expensive.

That's 18 more years of raising another girl, you know, because me and my wife already had three. I call her my wife and my fiancé. She's pretty much my wife of raising another girl. Me and my wife already had three. I call her my wife and my fiance. She's pretty much my wife. We've been together forever. I'm like, I don't want to risk. I don't want to risk. Do you think about it in terms of a financial risk? I can afford to have

a thousand kids. That's what I'm saying. What are you doing? That is something that gets ingrained in your head. People always say, the cost of raising kids But that is something that, like, gets ingrained in your head. People always say that. Oh, the cost of raising kids. Right, right. And you start thinking about, man, the cost of raising kids. It's more the time.

Yes. That time that, you know, you got to put in, like, you know, you're raising another little girl and it's all trial and error. So I'm thinking let's just put a little science in there. Wow. I feel like God gives people the intelligence to come up with these ideas and these different, you know, surgeries or whatever to be able to, you know what I'm saying? Like God gives someone the idea to be able to do this. So maybe he's okay with you choosing boy or girl. Well, they didn't have the foresight when they were writing the Bible to take out genetic diversity testing

or whatever the fuck they're doing, what would they be doing? Some sort of DNA chromosomal jazz. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what the process is. Well, people, I mean, wouldn't you say personally that people who are religious,

almost all of them sort of pick and choose what they decide to agree with and not agree with. I agree. I mean, you're a religious person, but you have a tattoo. Right. You have a religious tattoo, which is double ironic. That's funny. Because it says in the Bible not to get tattooed.

Right, not to mess with the temple. Right. But then you got to. Pick and choose, right? What you want to listen to. Yeah. It's not the way it's supposed to go either but you know we're imperfect and he knows that do you think when you were talking about like um wanting to wait until or that god would give you

this opportunity when you were more mature when you're mature enough to raise a man do you do you think about that like man why do i have to wait like why am i not mature right enough right now like if i can internalize that and if I can understand that like what is the difference between me in the future when I am mature enough to have a man and me right now like why why have I not learned enough lessons why why have I not balanced myself out enough I feel like I I'm learning lessons every year you know every month every day I feel like I'm growing as a person, you know, every month, every day. I feel like I'm growing as a person, as a man. But I know about some demons that I still struggle with.

And I feel as if when I'm over those, I'll feel ready to be able to raise a man and teach a man how to be a proper man. But you don't feel like you're over those yet? No. You're in the middle of it. You're in the struggle. Yeah, definitely kind of still in the struggle of some things, you know. But I've definitely got over a lot of things that I used to struggle with, which I'm excited about. But, you know, life is a work in progress.

Well, you were telling me before the show that you don't do Instagram anymore. You're not doing anything. You're just sort of laying low. You're not doing any interviews. So, like, before you were about to do this, you're like, oh, shit that you don't do Instagram anymore. You're not doing anything. You're just sort of laying low. You're not doing any interviews. So, like, before you were about to do this, you're like, oh, shit, I haven't done anything like this in a while. Yeah. Yeah, the main reason why I decided to come on your show was I'm getting ready to do this grappling match against Stan Henderson on the 11th. And there's going to be a lot of media surrounding it.

And there was a lot of, you know, I got to do like a one hour phoner with a bunch of different uh media guys and then there's a a few reporters that's going to be there physically to do some interviews with me and i feel like there's kind of just like a lot of things kind of untalked about and that you know people are just wondering how i'm feeling and what i've been up to and stuff like that and i didn't want to have to answer the same exact questions over and over for a thousand people so i was just like you know what joe rogan has a lot of respect amongst the mma community you know his following goes obviously beyond the mma community he's a smart guy and i was just like you know i'd rather let me just talk with you about kind of everything and get it out of the way um but yeah outside of uh this this interview with you i have not really done anything publicly since July when UFC 200 was canceled.

You've been on a crazy ride, not just through July, but for the last couple of years. You've been involved in a lot of crazy shit. Are you disappointed in yourself with a lot of this stuff? I am. I totally am. I totally am. What does it feel like? Like, give me the thought. Like, we can go through all of them, but give me the thought. Like, probably the most I was disappointed in you,

and I love you as a person. I think you're a great guy. I love you too, Gio. Thanks. I really do. I've always had a good time hanging out with you, but I was very disappointed with you with that car accident thing.

Yeah. When you ran away from that car accident. Yeah. That, to me, was like, God damn, John's in a bad place. Yeah, When you ran away from that car accident. Yeah. That to me was like, God damn, John's in a bad place. Yeah, I was in a bad place.

It was a messed up situation, man. I literally, I was in a point in my life, then when I was winning all these fights, I was the it boy in the UFC, sponsored by Nike and Gatorade, and greatest of all time,

finishing legends after legend after legend. Just really in this position where I felt so untouchable and I just felt like everything was meant to go my way in that time in my life. Started to, I was smoking pot, you know, the majority of my career. Me too. Shit, maybe it's happening to me. Drinking pot the majority of my career. Me too. Shit, maybe it's happening to me. Drinking every weekend pretty much to the point of blacking out. Blacking out?

Yeah, just being hammered and just being a total party boy. But still training my butt off. Working really hard, believing really hard, had big goals, big big dreams but just being a party boy and i think i just took everything that i had for granted because everything for the majority of my career has gone my way and um that that morning i got in a car accident man i just it was it was just it was it was a huge reality check and it was you know i think in some people's mind they they envision me you, hitting this car and running up and seeing that it was a pregnant lady and then taking off running.

And then people said that I came back and grabbed a load of money, which is the stupidest thing ever. Why would a millionaire need to grab cash, right? Did you run back to the car? So I literally, I went through a light it was like a green light that said that I could turn left but you supposed to yield for the right-of-way right to turn left and person came through and I just assumed it was my green light to go, obviously being not completely clear-headed. And I ended up running into a car.

I was definitely disoriented. Disoriented from the accident? From the accident, for sure. Just kind of like, what the hell just happened? It was a really big hit. But I was fine. I had no injuries, and I just felt like, well, maybe it wasn't that bad of a hit. So I literally step out of the car,

and I realized, like, seconds later, I realized my bull's in the car. Your bull? My bull. Yeah, my pot bull. Pot, pot. Yeah, and I wasn't smoking weed in the car or anything like that. But it was in the car.

But my bowl that had residue was in the car. So I literally, I opened my car door. I'd, like, take two steps away from the car. And then I'd go back to the car. And I, like, searched the car because I had it in my cup holder. And when I hit, the bowl fell somewhere. Who knows where it flew to. But I knew, i knew shit like if i can't find that bull that's gonna get me in trouble just having a bull in my car

so i looked for like two seconds couldn't find the bull and i just took off running did you look at the other person in the other car no i had no clue that it was a woman i had no clue that it was a pregnant woman how had no clue that it was a pregnant woman. How much time are we talking about? From the time that I hit, I was over a fence probably eight seconds later. It was literally a super reactionary. I just felt I hadn't been home yet. I stayed at a friend's house. I wasn't drinking and driving. My decision was to sleep at my friend's house because I wasn't drinking and driving. You know, my decision was to sleep at my friend's house because I knew I couldn't drive home. He woke up early the next morning to go to

work. And he's like, John, feel free to stay here. And, you know, you can make yourself breakfast or whatever, whatever. And the guy has a family. He has a wife and he has a newborn baby. And I didn't want to stay at his house while he's at work. So I was just like, no, I think I'm okay. But really I had maybe like two hours of sleep, and I didn't realize that I still wasn't ready to drive. So, you know, I wake up and get in my car, and, you know, I just wasn't ready to drive or whatnot. Why didn't you look at the other car? Because it all happened so fast.

Yeah, sorry, yeah. So it all happened so fast yeah sorry yeah so it all happened so fast and um i just knew i was uh i know i smelled like alcohol and um i just felt like if the police came i it would be a bad situation for me and um i just thought the person that i hit had to have been okay because I was totally okay. I was like, maybe this collision wasn't that hard. So I just feel like in a lot of people's minds, they see me as like, I knew it was this woman. I saw this woman hanging out the window crying and bleeding or something like that. And I just chose the lever. And I didn't know what I hit.

I didn't know if I hit a truck. I didn't know if I hit a punch bug. I didn't know what it was that I didn't know if I hit a truck. I didn't know if I hit a punch bug. I didn't know what it was that I hit. I just knew it was another vehicle. But you didn't even look. No, I didn't look. Wow. And I didn't go back for cash.

But it doesn't make what I did okay, the fact that I didn't go back for cash and I really went back for my bull. There's no better, right? The whole situation was just a shitty situation. I was in a really bad point in my life, taking, like I said, everything for granted. If you wanted to have a situation come up with this worst-case scenario, that is the worst-case scenario, a pregnant woman. Oh, yeah, it makes me look like a monster.

Yeah. It makes me look like a monster. When. It makes me look like a monster. When you found out I was a pregnant woman, what was going through your mind? I thought, man, I'm done. I'm done. First, I was afraid that there would be some type of problems with her baby because, you know, obviously if she had a difficult pregnancy, then that's a whole different level of being in trouble. God forbid if she was to have a miscarriage.

You know, I would imagine that that would be 1,000% put on me. So I thought about the fact that I went from just partying and enjoying this career and this amazing fairytale life, I thought I was going from that to, like, literally being in jail, being labeled as a murderer. So that was my number one thing was just hoping that the baby was okay. What were you thinking about yourself when you did that? There's no way you could be happy with yourself that you did that. No, I felt terrible.

What were you thinking? Well, me and my mom have a great relationship. I'm a mama's boy. And then I'm the father of four daughters. So, you know, if anything, my respect for women is, I have tremendous respect for women. And I try to, like, obviously, being a father, like, I tried to... I just felt like a monster.

I felt like a monster. You know what I mean? I just felt terrible. I felt really bad. I was mainly just concerned with this woman's health and safety. And I'm really glad that she ended up being okay. I felt really bad. I was just like

dude even in the public's eyes like you just heard a pregnant woman like doesn't really get worse than that but but yeah I had no clue I had no clue that it was even a woman that I hit and you know I felt terrible and what was the what was not just what was the reaction from your family and friends? You know, surprisingly, it was okay. You know, they support me so much, and they love me so much, and they know that I have a really, I believe I have a good heart. They know that I have a good heart. And they were just thinking, man, like. Did anybody step in and say hey man you gotta get your shit together oh i've had i've had

a lot of people tell me i need to get my shit together and what was it about like what besides that uh what do you mean like besides this one instance what other things have people come to you and say hey john you gotta get your shit together um well kind of all of it everything that's happened over the last you know two years or not uh makes people feel like they can tell me that i need to get my shit together i recently i recently um went outside to my garbage my garbage man was coming up and i was late getting one of the garbage out to the side of the road so he waited for me and he even told me he was like he was dumping my garbage.

He's like, hey, man, like I'm waiting to see you fight again. It's like you really need to get it together. I'm like, man, this dude's parked outside of my little mansion pretty much telling me to get my shit together. I'm taking out my garbage. Everybody feels like they have the right to tell me to get my shit together. And at the end of the day, you know, I sit there and I humbly take it because... They're right. Yeah, they're right.

But at the same time, you know how many motherfuckers there are in the world. You know what I mean? So many people are into all types of crazy shit. Yeah, but you can't compare yourself to the losers of the losers. I know what you're talking about. You know what I mean? You can say, hey, well, compared to dudes who like to go out and fuck goats, I'm fine. Exactly.

Who knows what weird shit this guy's in? Right. He's telling me to get my shit together. It's like, just because my shit's publicly, don't mean you're any better than I am. That's true. But you know what? That conflict is never ending and you can't get involved in it. Right.

That conflict that you're starting up in your own brain right now, it's a rationalization conflict. You start rationalizing your behavior versus, well, a lot of other people do worse. That is a dead end. It's a bad road that a lot of people go down to make themselves feel better. The only thing that can make you feel better is to be pure or to be clean of it. And to actually get your shit together. Yeah, because if someone comes up to me and says, hey, man, you've been ripping off old ladies and stealing money from the church. I'd be like, what the fuck are you talking about?

It doesn't make any sense. That's not true at all. So if someone says something to you that's rude, that's not true, it doesn't have any impact on you. But when someone says something to you that's rude but true, then you have to rationalize. Then you have to go, well, what about you, man? What's going on with your life? Maybe you're into some dark shit. That's a bad road.

And it's a defensive road. And as a fighter, it's a natural instinct. Somebody hits you, you want to hit them back. Somebody attacks you, you want, yeah, well, what about your weaknesses? And you want to try to search them out. And I'm sure a lot of people go through that when they read social media and they see these anonymous eggs on Twitter saying mean shit to you. You start thinking, oh, I want to know who this fucking guy is and what's going on in his fucking life. That is a trap, man.

That's a trap. Well, you know, like I said, I do respectfully take it. Like I've never had someone say, hey, you know, get it together, John. And then I sit there and be like, oh, you know, I always, you know, thank you so much for caring. Thank you so much for, you know, rooting for me still. And I really appreciate it. And I'm working at it.

And I seriously have been working on my personal life. much for you know rooting for me still and i really appreciate it and i'm working at it and and i i seriously have been working on my personal life tremendously and as of right now i feel i feel amazing i feel better now today than i did when i was uh beating everybody's ass and you know sponsored by the world and like i i literally feel better today because i i feel like i've conquered a lot of demons in my personal life so you feel better meaning you feel more at peace you feel more calm more at peace you know like not worried about social media all the time like that that has brought a lot of peace to me not worried about what people are saying not even worrying about what's going on in the u, like who has the belt or, or, or, you know, just, just, just being

Jonathan Jones and having my, my group of friends, um, across the country who Jenna, like, uh, genuinely love me, um, focusing on, on my kids every day, you know, taking my girls to cheerleading practice, picking them up from school, dropping them off at school. Basic stuff, like me and my fiance, you know. Just living life.

Being on top of stuff. Yeah, being on top of stuff. You know, I'm in no debts. You know, everything's caught up. Everything's spot on. You know,

things I wanted to get fixed around the house, you know, that paint chip is painted now. Everything is so put together right now in my life outside of sports. And obviously having the clear mind, something that I haven't had in a long time. I just feel really good right now.

And then also being in a position where I don't really good right now. And then also being in a position where I don't really need to fight again either. Financially, you mean? Financially. But don't you, though, in your mind? Oh, yeah, I have to fight because the story can't end like this. Yeah, well, the financial thing is beautiful and everything like that. It's wonderful that you're set for life and you can just kick back and your children will be taken care of and your wife will be taken care of.

That's all beautiful. But you have a responsibility of greatness. There's very few people that ever get to the position that you not just were in when you won the title, when you were the youngest ever UFC heavyweight or light heavyweight champion. Not just that. The youngest everweight champion. Not just that. The youngest ever UFC champion. Not just that.

There's also responsibility that comes with potential. It's not just what you've done. And, you know, it's what you could have done. Right. You fought Alexander Gustafson. Be honest about that. How much did you train for that fight? I trained.

I trained for the fight. But I definitely had this thing where I just felt invincible. And I did a lot of wild stuff leading up to the fight. I definitely didn't give it my all. As far as partying and not sleeping right. Mainly partying, yes. Drinking. Drinking, staying up all night.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, when you win a fight like that where you weren't 100 does that sort of almost reinforce this idea that you could do anything you want and then man imagine if i trained next time if it's someone big i'll train like yeah so i have this i'm going to share something with i'm not sure if i've ever shared this with anyone else before but i had this crazy thing that i would do um where i would party one week before every fight and i did it throughout my whole career and uh and this was stupid but it was this mental crutch that i had i literally would one week before every fight i would go out and I would get blacked out, wasted. And my logic was if this guy were to beat me somehow, um, I, I can look myself in the mirror and say that, well, I lost because I got hammered

the week before the fight. So, so it was a built in safety net. It was a safety net. Yeah, exactly. So I did it my whole career i would go out and get hammered one week before every fight have you ever worked with a sports psychologist no but now but now i don't um my um my oven saint prue fight was the first fight that i did not do that it was my worst performance so i see i don't think it was your worst performance i think you were very unjustly criticized for that fight because I think Ovin St. Preux is a very tough guy. He's a very difficult fighter.

He's very strong. He's got a brutal left kick. He's athletic. He moves well. I believe it was a good performance, but it was still my worst performance. See, I think Ovin St. Preux is a really tough guy, and it was a tough fight,

and you hadn't fought in a long time. I had a lot of stuff. You were off for how long? How many months? 16 months or something? Yeah, it was over a year. Yeah, fought in a long time. I had a lot of stuff. You were off for how long? How many months? 16 months or something? Yeah, it was over a year. Yeah, it was a long time. Over a year.

I had a lot of stuff going, yeah. A lot of pressure. And then you're fighting a guy who'd been pretty active and fought some good guys, had a great victory over Shogun, and looked real good in a lot of his fights and was an up-and-comer. The main thing about Ovince that really bothered me was he was the most—well, he was seasoned. He actually has been fighting longer than I have and a lot of people don't realize that. But he was just so green and raw still.

Skill wise. I don't I study everybody extensively and then I come up with their patterns. I figure out the way they flinch. I figure out their first favorite punchinch. I figure out their first favorite punch, their second favorite punch, their third, their favorite combinations, their setups to their takedowns, when they clinch, what side of their head's going to be on.

Literally everything. I know everything about every opponent. What side they're going to shoot, whether it's going to be a head inside, head outside. What am I going to do about that? I figure out everything. Why they shoot, what area of the cage they like to shoot, I figure out everything, why they shoot, what area of the cage they like to shoot, everything. And with Ovin St. Preux, he doesn't know what he's going to do. He's so unorthodox, you know, and he gets these random knockouts from these weird angles, and he just winks up, and he almost closes his eyes, and the next thing you know, he's knocked somebody out, you know. So the scary thing about him was he's so unpredictable.

And I had a lot on the line. So I just said, you know what, this guy is in a shell pretty much the whole fight. He was defensive the whole fight. And I just thought I'd coast through the fight and not really risk anything, which I felt like I let myself down because normally I would just, I mean, normally when you get someone like that, you just, you know, take them out. You know, I should have just been able to take them out. But I was content with winning, and I think that was one of the first fights where I actually just wanted to get the win, get my money,

go back to my actual goal, which was DC, instead of wanting to finish this guy like normal. So I had to really question myself on why I was like that, why I was content with coasting. Well, that was a fight where that had the most pressure on you than any fight you've had before, as far as people wanting to see how you respond to the adversity outside

of the octagon right right i agree i agree i had a lot of pressure and i feel like i responded great to my adversity you know i i did all the things i had to do to get back to um get back to uh the stage you know i handled all my probation obligations and and um and i i stayed healthy i started power lifting and i hired a nutritionist i looked better than ever i felt better than ever physically um i did everything i had to do i manned up and and was responsible for my actions yeah was it greg jackson that thought that the power lifting might have a bit of an effect on on your performance yeah he thought that you were doing might have a bit of an effect on your performance? Yeah.

He thought that you were doing too much of that? Yeah, well, I was doing too much of it. So I literally, I started powerlifting, and I took off seven months of martial arts training. I didn't show up to Jackson's for seven months. And I showed up to this place called ZS Strength Systems, a powerlifting gym, four days a week. Just getting jacked. Getting jacked. I became obsessed with lifting heavy weight and I literally did no martial arts training and then about four months out from the fight I started to come into the room a little bit more. And then only three months before the fight did I actually start a training camp.

Now, why did you do that as far as, like, cardio and things like that? Wouldn't you think that your cardio would dramatically suffer from just lifting weights? Well, I did a lot. I had a lot of weight to lose because I had gotten big. And I actually did a lot of cardio training. But I was also, I had these new coaches, new strength and conditioning coaches who specialized in powerlifting. So I had to almost, we had to come up with a plan together of how we were going to start

not weightlifting and doing all cardio. And even at the beginning stages, it was like, okay, well, let's just lift lighter weights more. And I was like, no, no, no, I need like cardio, cardio. And so it was just a big learning thing that we had to do together. So were these guys, were they involved in martial arts at all? These, my powerlifting coaches? Powerlifting coaches?

No, no, they weren't. And they were giving you advice about martial arts training? So they're, like, sort of learning on the job. Yeah, kind of learning on the job, but they weren't giving me advice about martial arts training. It was just a learning curve. I don't think they had ever worked with an endurance athlete the way that I am. Mostly they work with football players or powerlifters?

They work with a Philadelphia Eagle and a lot of powerlifters, yeah. But these guys, to their credit, they were really humble and they listened and they quickly adjusted what we were doing every day to make it more about endurance and not about maintaining muscle or strength and things like that. And I felt like I got in really good shape with these guys. And now we're at a place, because I'm still working with these same guys, now we're at a place where we realize the importance of endurance and we're going to start way farther out.

And like I said, these guys are humble enough to do what I need them to do, put me through some strenuous workouts that I think are a great idea, make sure my endurance is in the right place. So other than the fact that you did so much strength and conditioning or so much power lifting, what else, like what did you feel when you got into the octagon, when you fought over in St. Preux? Did you feel stronger? Did you feel like your endurance had been diminished slightly

because of all this power lifting? Well, so like I was saying, I took off seven months of martial arts and then I did a three-month camp. And so if you, like anything, if you take off seven months of anything, your game is going to change a little bit. So literally throughout my training camp, I found myself trying to get, learn how to fight again pretty much i felt like timing was all my timing was off my creativity was off the things that i the go-to moves that i used to do weren't quite there um i would watch some of my old training practices or my old fights and i'm like man i'm not doing this stuff that i was doing before um so I was really nervous going into it. I knew that I was ready to beat DC because I was so well rehearsed and the drills and everything were so well rehearsed to beat DC.

But as far as going into the fight with Ovin St. Preux, I just felt like my creativity was kind of gone and my ability to improvise wasn't quite there. And that was just from taking off so much time from martial arts. So in the fight with Ovin St. Preux, I felt really strong. I felt really, really strong, like picking him up against the cage and taking him down felt effortless. As opposed to the way you used to feel, you felt stronger. I felt, I felt really strong. Yeah. Stronger. What else? Endurance felt good. It felt good.

It wasn't as sharp as normal. Like a few times when I took him down, I remember I wound up in a punch, and I threw a big punch, and then I wound up, and then I hit him again in D.C. They said it was in the back of the head, which it wasn't. It was on the neck. It was in the back of the head, which it wasn't. It was on the neck. But I was throwing big shots on Ovens instead of throwing a whole bunch of shots,

and that was because I was feeling lactic acid in my arms. So that kind of made me nervous that I didn't have the normal level of endurance that I normally have. Do you think that's because you had more muscle bulk? Yeah, I think it is because I had more muscle bulk. But on the bright side, and not that this is a good thing to injure someone, but I did break or fracture his arm with a kick, and that's something that I've never done before. So that showed me that definitely came.

That has to be connected to just developing so much power in my hips and in my legs. It's a point of, there's like a balancing tipping point, right, where it's like strength versus endurance and trying to find that perfect line right and right now as i say here today i'm i'm uh i'm using my past experience and you know to measure what i'm doing uh as we speak so right now i'm strong as hell um but my endurance is actually in a really good place right now and i'm not fighting until july so now i'm figuring it out right now as we strong as hell. But my endurance is actually in a really good place right now, and I'm not fighting until July. So I'm figuring it out right now as we speak. When you got really big, were you doing that?

Were you thinking, hey, you know, one day I'm going to fight heavyweight. Let's see what I would be like as a heavyweight. You know, I didn't know what I was going to do at that point. I just needed something to be passionate about, something to be competitive about. While you were suspended. While I was suspended, yeah. And, you know, I went through a real self-destructive state right after the car accident.

How so? I just started to party more. I was really depressed. Yeah, the belt had been stripped from me. Yeah, the belt had been stripped from me. And not until Anthony Johnson and DC fought that first time did I join the gym and get myself together. Why was that? Just watching that fight?

Watching these guys competing for your belt? Yeah, just seeing them compete for the belt, I thought to myself, man, I am wasting talent. I'm wasting everything. I believe I can beat both of these guys. And they're up there and on TV where I should be. And I'm sitting here at home kind of, you know, living in this depression. And so literally the next day I called.

I walked down there stoned, right? And just like, hey, I need to get my life together i need something i need something to uh be excited about something to to inspire me motivate me get me up get me out of the house and uh and i just completely turned everything around from that day forward and just started to find a new passion, and that was weightlifting. And I got so strong so fast, and it became everything to me, like just for my numbers to go up every week, which they did, and I found myself really happy again, like, you know, squatting 500 pounds, being 6'4", and only weighing, you know, 225,

you know, with these really skinny legs. 500 pounds is a lot of weight. Deadlifting 600 pounds. You know, there are guys who have been training at that gym for years who still can't do those type of numbers. And I was able to do it. So I was just like, man, you know, I can do anything I put my mind to. And, uh, I just thought I was going to become one of the strongest motherfuckers in Albuquerque. Like that was my, that was my plan.

Well, powerlifting gyms are very competitive and guys get super hung up on the idea of like lifting heavier and heavier weights. I've I had Mark Bell on the podcast before, and we also did a podcast in Columbus with Louie Simmons, who's a world-famous powerlifting guru, and he's a fucking maniac. And it's all with all those guys. It's all just about putting up big numbers, keeping going, keeping going, keeping going.

Heavier numbers, you know? Yeah, I fell in love with with it it's crazy sort of discipline it is yeah so it's so simple to you just yeah lift it up but it's very satisfying for people looking at it like who gives a fuck if you squat 500 pounds right but when you're doing like yeah you're screaming yeah exactly clink yes everybody high fives chalks flying in the air it's the best dude i'm telling you i love love it. I really love powerlifting a lot. Were you worried at all about getting injured, though? Because that's a big part of powerlifting, too.

No, I have pretty good trainers, and they teach me the right way to do things. But they also allow me to be out of position a lot of times, too, because a lot of times people focus on the perfect form at everything. But when you lift a real big weight, you're not always going people focus on the perfect form at everything but when you lift a real big weight you're not always going to be in the perfect form so they they almost allow me to be out of position sometimes or not in the perfect form and still power through positions that way you're you're strong in a grappling sense yeah you're strong in every you're strong in every every part of the movement whether you're in good form or bad form you're still able to lift big

weight well that's the big theory behind functional strength, right? That's why people like doing things like power cleans and presses because it's such an awkward thing to do with the weight and you're in weird movements and you're doing things with your whole body. Right. Right. Now, what are you doing these days? So these days, I have just been doing-

Are you back to Jacksons? A bunch of powerlifting and a bunch of wrestling and jiu-jitsu. That's been my thing lately. No striking? No, I haven't done any striking. My whole goal is to not get punched in the head at all. That's your goal? Well, that's what my plan is, yeah. I'm going to eventually alter my workout routine to where I'm doing a lot of mitts and working on my versatility.

Working on my versatility and just my abilities on my feet. So you're not throwing any punches these days, not throwing any kicks? That sounds crazy to me. But my plan is to get into that. That's not going to last for too long, but I won't be doing too much sparring, especially heavy sparring. Right, but even without doing any sparring, you don't hit the bag you don't know no lately I've been doing a whole bunch of wrestling and jiu-jitsu wow and I'm really starting to love it too just jiu-jitsu really yeah I'm really starting to love jiu-jitsu and the jiu-jitsu has been the art that I've neglected the most over my entire career and surprisingly I have the most submissions in light heavyweight history.

I think Kim Shamrock is right behind me with maybe five, and I have six. Ken Shamrock? Frank, one of them. One of the Shamrock brothers are behind me for most submissions. Well, Ken was never a light heavyweight, right? I mean, Ken went to light heavyweight when he fought Tito, but in the early days, like when he was a heavyweight. I'm sure someone can figure out. He was a light heavyweight in the

Tito days, but that was Ken, you know, later on in his career. How many submissions did Frank have? Maybe it's Frank. I don't know. Ken or Frank. I think one of the Shamrock brothers are right behind me on submissions. That's interesting. Legends. Legends of the sport, yeah. Pioneers, man. But now I love jiu-jitsu, man. Well, you're built for it. That's for fuck sure. These long arms, man. I'm becoming a choke man. I'm shocked. I would assume that someone who's a professional mixed martial arts fighter has to at least maintain a maintenance level of striking. Oh, right. Constantly. And my plan is to get back in. July is still very far away. Now, when it's July, how does that work?

When you're suspended, because this is a question that I've always wanted to know, like if you're suspended for a PED or something along those lines, aren't you not supposed to train with other fighters that are in the UFC, or is that bullshit? I haven't heard anything about not being able. Because that sounds crazy, right? That does sound crazy. You can't train, especially if you're trying to help friends.

Right. Which would be very therapeutic for someone who's on the outside. And that's, you know, I spend a lot of time helping other fighters. Does that help you a lot when you're trying to get back into things? Absolutely. And just sort of be there for it? Absolutely. There's always someone at my house studying their opponents.

Yeah, that's one of the best parts about MMA and martial arts in general, I think, is helping friends. Giving back. Yeah. Something that's new to me, too, because martial arts can be a very selfish sport. You know, it's a team sport, but if you're not putting yourself first, then you're not going to make it to a certain level. Right.

I've been really selfish my entire career, and that's one thing my coaches have always gotten on me about. Hey, John, I know you live in New York I know you got a family But you need to get back down here and help these guys they have a fight coming up and now that I live in Albuquerque I'm constantly giving back and helping other fighters especially you know since I have all these suspensions happen Do you surround yourself with too many people that like to party? I used to. You used to? I used to for sure. Yeah, I used to have a lot of wild friends. And when did you stop hanging out with these people? The

car accident? Or like yesterday? No, after the car accident. When I decided that I was going to be completely sober, I lost a lot of friends. And it was crazy because I used to, my phone used to blow up on Friday nights because everybody knew that John was going to be buying everything that people needed. You know, like I literally, I was the guy who went to the bar and I would just buy like 40 shots of Patron. And I'm just like, and literally if you're standing around me, you're getting a shot of Patron. I'm just passing them out, right?

And next thing you know, people who don't even know each other, they're all hugging. I'm really good at merging people together and having strangers and having a great time. And that was my thing, like walking to a bar where I know five people and now I have 20 new homies and like everybody's just hanging out. And so when you're like that, you know know Friday nights come around eight o'clock everybody's like yo where are you gonna be tonight you know right you know if I'm out there's gonna be more people around you're

gonna have a way better time your chances of getting laid is going up because you're hanging out with me like it's just the truth you know so I just had a bunch of people around me and um and um but since i became sober um a lot of those phone calls they slowly stopped they slowly they slowly stopped you know and so now um i've been sober for uh almost 16 months and um and now i'm i have i have And now I have the best times. I have the best times. I remember everything that happens. My friends don't try to ever encourage me to drink or anything. And they know I'm not going to.

I just have the best times. I have the best times. How were you able to make that transition? Did you follow any program? I stopped being, no, I didn't. I just stopped. I stopped answering my phone call for a lot of people. And I just kind of went into hiding for a while.

I just stayed away from the scene until I felt like I was strong enough to just not do it. And, um, and it, it, it helped. It helped a lot. And now do you ever go to bars now and order a water or anything like that?

Can you do that? Yeah, I go out, I go out, um, and, uh, I'll drink Red Bull.

I'll drink Red Bull whenever I'm in a situation where a lot of people are drinking. Sometimes I feel like I'm just kind of chilling and a little bit too chilled out. So in order to keep up with a bunch of drunk people who are talking. You drink Red Bull. I drink a Red Bull, yeah. You can't drink too many of those, though, man. That shit's bad for you. Yeah, it's terrible for you.

But, I mean, it's way better than just getting turned up. Right, right. So it's funny because I've developed this way of just having so much fun, completely sober, where a lot of times when I'm leaving a place, someone will be like, hey, how are you getting home? I'm like, I don't know. Driving, dude. I'm going to drink.

Yeah. So it's great. I really do appreciate my sobriety. I love it. Now, you were saying you were having a problem with pot, too. Yeah, dude. I've been a stoner since high school yeah um is that like stopping that was that as easy as stopping

drinking or is it uh what's more difficult it was um it was i think stopping pot was really tough because I literally didn't associate with too many people who didn't smoke. That's the way I kind of like... A lot of people on my own team, I didn't hang out with them because I was kind of one of the hardest-working guys on the team, but a little bit of a bad boy, and none of my teammates were really... A bad boy, meaning you smoked pot? Just meaning I was just always down for a good time.

Right. You know what I mean? So I just kind of, a lot of my friends were people who weren't martial arts, had anything to do with martial arts, and I would always kind of associate with just party people, people who like to have fun. So I realized once I quit smoking that I really didn't know too many people who didn't smoke.

So I had to kind of start hanging out with people who didn't smoke, which I kind of found, I thought was just like, like I, it was. These people are boring. You said it, Joe. They don't talk about cool shit.

Yeah. They don't like to stare up at space. Yeah. They don't want to go to the mountains and meditate in fucking cross-legged position. Yeah. Yeah.

I had to find people who were just straight, you know, who were always just straight. And, and I just, I had to find people who were just straight you know who are always just straight and um and i just had to find different activities too right and you know because when you're hanging out with people who don't party you know they have certain ways that they have fun and it's usually based around a lot more activities i feel like so i got into mountain bike mountain biking and um you know jogging more fitnessging more and fitness and things like that. So now fitness is like my drug. I really love being strong and being healthy.

And I do mountain biking and jiu-jitsu. I do a lot of jiu-jitsu these days. And so that's kind of like what I live for outside of family, of course. Well, it sounds to me that you've done an audit of your life and you've looked at all the issues that you're, you're, you're dealing with and you've decided to not engage in them anymore. Have you, do you write things down? Do you write like goals down or, or things that you demand of yourself? Do you ever do that? I do. I have a list on my phone of different ways of thinking that I want to stand for. Different things you're thankful for?

No, different ways of thinking that I— Oh, different ways of thinking? Yeah, that I want to stand for. Yeah, I do. Like how so? Just little things that help me be patient and to be loving and to appreciate. It's just how I had to look through my phone. I just write down a lot of reminders of what I stand for and how I view things.

But I do write things down, yeah. Now, when you look at the future and you see yourself from here on out, do you feel like from now on, from my time on this earth, no more drinking, no more pot, no more partying? I do believe that I'll drink. Really? Why is that? Just because coming out of high school, I started drinking in high school and I always felt like I needed alcohol to be cool

or to put myself in certain situations to conquer anxiety or whatever. To be a part of the crowd and to have fun. To relax. Yeah, I always thought I needed alcohol. And so I got to a point where I couldn't just go out and have a drink.

I would always get to the point where everyone's getting crazy and things are getting wild, you know. And I never really had the opportunity to develop a healthy relationship with it. It just went from high school to college, when you party even more, to being famous and being able to afford to buy everybody drinks every night. Right. So my relationship with alcohol, it became unhealthy,

and I never went through a period of time where I had a healthy, mature, responsible relationship with it. Now being sober for so long, I know that I can have one drink and feel a little bit of a buzz and catch an Uber home or whatnot. Or I know that I can go out and not have a drink at all and be the life of the party. I know that I can go out and not have a drink at all and approach someone and talk to someone with zero anxiety

or feeling like, oh, you know, I can sit amongst a group of drunk people and know that I'm cool in my own skin just the way that I am. And that's something I never really had the opportunity to experience until now. And so now I feel like I'm in a mature enough place where if I wanted to have a drink in the future to celebrate a victory or something like that, or a glass of wine at home with my fiance, I know that I could do that now. So I just, my relationship with it has completely changed. And I believe that I could drink in the future and not run into some of the wild, you know, crashing a Bentley into a pole, stuff like that, that I was doing before.

When you say you believe you could, you know, it's interesting. I'm kind of talking out of my ass here because I've never had a problem with alcohol, but I know people that have and the people that have had a problem with alcohol, they, the way they describe it, they're like, I can't do it. Like if I go back, I will go all the way. Right. It's like that there's a, there's a thing that alcohol does to you where it says, or drugs, you know, like just a little bit, man, just a little bit. Right. It's like that there's a thing that alcohol does to you where it says, or drugs, you know, like, just a little bit, man.

Just a little bit. Right. Come on. We're just going to get a little bit. Just a little bit. Just a little shot. Right. Just a little beer.

What's a beer? Everybody has a beer. Come on, man. Right. And then that's the siren song that leads you back to the rocks. I feel like I had a problem with alcohol, but I never wanted to admit it. When you say you had a problem, did you have a physical problem? No.

Like when you got off the alcohol, did you have withdrawals? Did you feel weird? No, I didn't feel weird. I wasn't waking up and drinking every day. So it's a psychological thing. Yeah, I was getting hammered on the weekends. Right. Right?

I wasn't waking up and I didn't need alcohol. But I always said to myself, I don't waking up and like I didn't need alcohol. But I always said to myself, I don't have a problem with alcohol. But then when you run into a pregnant woman, you have a problem with alcohol. The day that something affects you, the first DWI, you know, it's a problem. You weren't thinking straight. Yeah. Something was causing you to not think straight. And it was your actions and what you chose to take into your body. And then you said, all right, I'm done with that. Right. But you feel like you could causing you to lose. And then something was causing you to not think straight, and it was your actions and what you chose to take into your body,

and then you just said, all right, I'm done with that. Right. But you feel like you could get back to that. I feel like alcohol was never really, like, I was never really addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to, I just really enjoyed partying a lot, and I made a lot of bad decisions with alcohol. So now I really have had the time to see clearly where I went wrong with alcohol. Obviously, being a public figure and living in a small town, I never need to be getting blacked out in public again anyways. It's just something that I look back and I hear stories.

My boys are like, yo, you remember the time you did this and we were at that? I'm like, I can't believe i used to get blacked out in public and living in this small town that i live in it's like so i've just i've had a lot of times they evaluate marijuana actually is something that i don't think i want to go back to really i don't think i want to go back to you you feel like you have an unhealthy relationship or had an unhealthy relationship with marijuana i i really i i was smoking way too much pot i was smoking way too much pot literally breakfast lunch and dinner in between workouts uh to study film to do everything i was just i was just uh and for me

there's some functional smokers who can wake up and they have eight things they're gonna do that day and they do all eight things like me i will wake up and i had eight things i needed to do that day and i'd be like oh i got three of them done today like i'm good with that like i just i it just it slowed me down it slowed me down and now that i haven't been smoking i just feel a lot better i feel a lot better i feel um i feel more on my game i feel sharper i'm thinking of sparking up a joint right now. Go ahead. I'm like, what are you saying? I know it's probably hard for you to hear. I know it's probably. Well, no, I mean, honestly.

It hits everybody differently. It absolutely does. It absolutely does. And that's important. And so does Red Bull and so does alcohol and so does everything else. Yeah. You know. It was all day, every day for me.

But do you think that you, was it all day, every day because you were looking for an escape? Or was it all day, every day because it had formed a habit and that's what you were used to doing? It just became a way of life. It became a way of life for me. When you're dealing with the amount of stress and just the amount of pressure is probably a better word. Of being, you know, one of the great fighters of all time. I mean, you're without a doubt one of the best fighters that's ever fought in MMA. And there's so many eyes on you and there's so much pressure and there's so much money involved and accolades and all these different things. These, these, you know, Hey John, we've got a business meeting for you. Hey John, this company wants to talk

to you about doing this. And Hey John, and there's just so much coming your way. Do you feel like it's almost like you had set yourself up in a position where you needed some escape, you needed an escape valve, and that's what you had found through the drinking, that's what you had found through the pot, you had found these ways where you could not be Jon Jones for a while, where you could be this blacked out dude at a bar. All of a sudden, you feel normal. As normal as you can feel

by being a 20-whatever-year-old millionaire fucking throwing shots around in Albuquerque, you had found a valve to release you from some of the intense pressure of being one of the baddest motherfuckers on the planet. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. It definitely made you feel for those moments.

Take your hands away from me so I can hear you. I'm sorry. You're just blocking the microphone. It's weird. It's weird. Yeah, I do agree that it for those moments made me kind of feel like normal yeah for sure

especially the bar thing going out and just having a good time like sometimes I forgot that I was a celebrity and that there was a lot of eyes on me but for those moments I felt like I think that was one of my biggest problems I felt as if I was a celebrity and that there was a lot of eyes on me. But for those moments, I felt like I was like, I think that was one of my biggest problems.

I felt as if I was amongst, I didn't really hold myself to a higher standard because of who I was and what I did. And even to this day, I just feel like I'm one of the guys. Right, well, you are. Yeah, I am one of the guys. I don't really seek hanging out with other celebrities. All my friends are like just normal, average Joe guys.

And back when I used to party, I used to feel like that was me just not being John Bones Jones and just being one of the guys, like just doing the wild shit that everybody does. And then when something bad happens, it's like you're quickly reminded that millions of people around the world know exactly who you are. So it's just, it's like. But isn't it, it's a two edged sword too, because the people that get completely lost in the idea that they are this unique and special person, you eliminate yourself from all those other folks and you, you separate yourself and then it's extremely hard to relate.

Right. And there's a lot of celebrities that go into a shell and everywhere they go they have security that takes some places and they get delusional they have a they they have a completely distorted perception of how people interact with them because they don't just go hang with people right yeah that's that's definitely not me i i um i meet a lot of people and people say man you just you don't act like a you don't act famous i'm just like um I don't know. I really have a lot of pride in just doing just normal shit, like going to places that most people, even fighters in Albuquerque,

don't go just being amongst the people. And I think a big part of me longed to just kind of be not famous sometimes. Now my question, the reason why I ask you that is, how do you plan on handling that now? Because if you're not going to be drinking and you're not going to be smoking pot and you're going to I mean right now you're living life as just John Jones

the person and happy with your family and happy with your life and just working out and having a good time doing jujitsu and all that stuff but eventually everything's going to ramp back up again. Media obligation is going to ramp back up again. All these things are going to happen and the pressure is going to be back on you again.

What are you going to use as that escape valve then? Have you considered that? No, I haven't really. No, that's very important. I feel like I, I feel like I have matured in a way where I don't think it will affect me the way it used to. I've really had the opportunity to step away from it all. Realize what I had and who I am and what I was.

And I just feel above. What you used to be? Yeah. I feel above the way I used to let so much consume me. Even right now, I don't know. It's just so hard to explain. I don't feel like I'm in the same. I don't feel like I look at things the same.

Well, I'm sure you don't. I mean, that's the thing about growth. And that's one of the things that when people are haters, what they try to do is lock you down to the old you Right, they try to lock you down to you at your very worst. Yeah, man You remember that shit in 2010 when you said that fucked up thing when you were blacked out. That's you bro Remember that I was blacked out. What did I say? You tell me you know and someone can you know someone can believe that they are their past. Yeah, but we're not no you're you Yeah, you and if you have not had fuck. Yeah, but we're not. No, you're you. Yeah.

You're you. And if you have not had fuck-ups, then you don't understand the consequences. Yeah. I mean, you've had considerable amount of fuck-ups and a lot more than the average person in a public sense. There's a lot of people that have done a lot of fucked up things, but no one knows about it. And the repercussions they feel, it's not the same as yours.

You feel the repercussions of millions of, first of all, millions of people that loved you that were disappointed Millions of people that were jealous of you. They're like I fucking told you he's gonna throw it all away There's a lot of that too a lot of people psyched that you fucked up far far from throwing it all away I sometimes I get people write me and say dude say things like oh you ruined a great career or like you Like people have this mindset that it's all over. Yeah, I saw a lot of people saying that. People that I like said that.

And I was like, you're crazy. You're an idiot. You're crazy. He hasn't thrown it away. I haven't thrown it away. Right now there's a pause going on. But as far as it being all over or whatever, it's just so far from being true. Do you follow boxing?

A little bit. A little bit a little bit you do you know bernard hopkins story no bernard hopkins one of the greatest boxers of all time for sure and he'll he'll fight december 17th for his last fight at 51 years old because he's a goddamn defensive wizard he still does commentary for hbo still sharp as a tack but bernard hopkins went to jail and uh he decided when he went to jail, when he was a young man, he decided that from that point on he was going to be disciplined and that there's no more bullshit in his life,

no more robbery or assault or any of the shit that got him into the position where he's in. And then he was going to dedicate his life to being a world champion boxer. And from that point on, he became one of the most disciplined boxers ever. Never ate bad food, never drank, never did anything stupid, always was in shape. And we'll go down in history as one of the all-time greats, guaranteed shoe-in Hall of Famer. And I feel like Bernard Hopkins was created by the darkest moment of him being arrested and him doing time in jail.

And when he came out of that jail, one of the first things that one of the corrections officers said to him was, you'll be back. And he used that as fuel. And he knew that, like, there's no fucking way. I'm going to look at that dude again. There's no way. There's no way he's right. There's no way.

And ultimately, Bernard Hopkins escaped his demons by facing them, by being in hell, by being in hell. I think he was in jail for I forget how many years, but just enough, just enough to cement in his eyes, to harden him to the fact that what he needed was discipline and control over his own destiny. And I think that for a guy like you, you can take all those dark moments that you've experienced over this. And fuck, man, you think about it, man. You got away pretty light. That girl could have died. You know, horrible things could have happened while you were drunk driving when you slammed into that Bentley into the tree.

All these terrible things could have gone wrong that you kind of got away with. You kind of mean, boy, I mean, if you wanted to think that someone's looking out for for you you've got all the evidence in the world that points to someone actually looking out for you yeah that's great for sure something out there whether it's luck or whether it's intention or whether it's god or whatever the fuck it is man the bottom line is right now at this moment you are still in your athletic prime you're still only six months away from a when is your suspension george about eight months yeah eight months away from a suspension being released and i mean that's this is all a great thing how old are you now you're 30 29 29 you'd be when when's your birthday july 19 so you'd be 30 when you come back i'll be 29 still when it's your fucking athletic prime

yeah that's you that's at your Really, your prime is like 32. That's why I put the Jordan meme up, the Jordan crying face as my Twitter picture. Have you seen that? No. I put that up. Is it with you with the belt on, the Jordan face? Yeah. Is it with you with the belt on, the Jordan face? Yeah.

The reason why I put that up is because I know that right now I'm in a position to do some magnificent and extraordinary things. I know that because I've made so many mistakes, I make the perfect role model. mistakes, I make the perfect role model. I make the perfect person to still be able to inspire millions of people. There's very few people who are perfect and flawless and just that clean cut, never did anything wrong athlete. There's way more people who are like me, who have struggled with drugs or just being an idiot or just doing wild shit. Way more people who are like me who have struggled with drugs or just being an idiot or just doing wild shit way more people who have let their parents down let their families down let their friends down let themselves down um and because because i've made so many mistakes on on such a public you know such a big scale and so public um i feel like all the great things that i do

from here and now are going to be that much the great things that i do from here and out are going to be that much greater because of where i came from to to do it i feel like um i feel like my best is yet to come and there's just i feel like i'm in a position to to really um touch a lot of people and inspire a lot of people because of where i came from so i'm really excited um is that something you concentrate on more than you concentrate? I mean, do you, you concentrate on that as much as you concentrate on just doing it for yourself? Um, doing it for, doing it for other people, um, motivates me probably more than doing it for myself. Why is that? Is that from all of the accolades that you receive from all the fans and just realize that you have all this love out there from all these people?

Yeah, I just feel like I don't need it. I don't need it anymore. I feel like I've done everything already. I've been in all the wildest situations already. I've had all the craziest experiences. I've stayed at the nicest hotels. I've seen the world. I've ate at the nicest restaurants.

There's nothing else that I really need out of this uh out of this thing i've literally been there and done that already um um i feel like um i just feel like ultimately i've already gotten so much out of the sport and what i need to do is uh to truly get. What I really need is to know that I'm changing lives. Like that motivates me more than anything else right now. The story, the legacy. And so the reason why I put that laughing meme up is because I'm laughing at my pain and my struggles right now. I'm laughing at what I'm going through right now

because I know my future is just so incredibly bright, and I know the impact that I have. I know what I can do and what I'm going to do. Right now I'm in a waiting period where I have to wait before I can show the world what I'm actually capable of and what I can be and what I'm going to do for someone else one day. And it's also laughing at like people who actually think that I'm out down and out like people who actually think that my story is over or you know it's just like I'm just laughing at it all because um what I've done is like I've seen some athletes come back from way worse stuff

rape charges and murder and attempted murder and you know all this type of crazy shit you know I've seen some athletes come back from way worse stuff, rape charges and murder and attempted murder and, you know, all this type of crazy shit. You know, of anything I've done, I've partied too much, and I've done a lot of stupid stuff, like from being a party boy. You know, I know I'm not a bad person. I'm not like this evil athlete, you know.

Does it bother you when people think you are? No, no, no, I don't. Because when I ask people, you know, it bother you when people think you are because people know no no I don't I don't because you want to ask people you know it's like no I don't it's people who wants to believe that I'm this terrible you know this is one of the worst things that has ever happened in sports you know people want to believe that because they just don't want me to to be all that I can be and you know it's also because people look at the worst case scenario and they look You know, people want to believe that because they just don't want me to be all that I can be. And I'm still laughing at them. Well, it's also because people look at the worst case scenario. They look at the worst possibility.

You know, they look at you as this guy who's had so much success, so many things handed to him that maybe he thinks he's better than everybody else. Nothing's been handed. So he thinks, of course. Right. Of course. Yeah. But they don't think about it that way. I know that.

But they don't think about it that way. I know that. But they don't think about it that way. When they see the worst case scenario, I mean, the way it was played out, a pregnant woman in a car and you get in a car accident and you took off. Yeah. I mean, it is like for the haters, it's like a dream come true. Yeah, it is. But, man, one thing I've learned about myself is that I can't be held down. I'm not held down very easily unless you – I just can't be held down, man'm not held down very easily. Unless you... I just can't be held down, man.

I deal with adversity very well, man. I always find a way to get my shit together and dig myself out of situations and ultimately rise above situations. That's beautiful as long as you don't count on it. Right. I'm at a position now where I'm sick of getting in my own way. And like UFC 200.

Let's talk about that. I literally. What happened? I did everything that I could to be back in the position to win that belt back. I was getting ready to just show this triumphant, amazing story of someone who just made it through a hit and run situation. Had almost had everything taken from him and got it all back and then um and then um i'm sorry i'm thinking about so many things at once when i've been so let's just talk about what happened you tested positive for some um estrogen inhibitors yeah as you blockers estrogen blockers that a lot of

people associate with people who take steroids right people take steroids they want to restart their system or if you want a testosterone boost you take clomid or clomiphene and these are these are standard drugs in the steroid users world yeah yeah all new for me. Yeah. What did you take? So I took an off-brand Cialis pill. Off-brand?

It wasn't actual Cialis, but it was described to me as being a Cialis. And so I thought it was a Cialis and I just took it. Why does a guy like you need Cialis? I have a huge cock, Joe. It's too big? It's too big. That's a good answer. You don't have the resources to get it normally? Yeah, you know, I...

You were partying? No, I wasn't even necessarily partying, no. I've taken, like, Mel enhancement before, and for people who haven't taken it you literally you know you go from being like that to just it puts the twist at the end of a punch you know what i mean it like it it's it's a good time you know and uh it's a good time that's gonna be a quote john jones it's a good time now um's going to be a quote. It's a good time. Now, what was this?

Like one of those gas station rhino pills? One of those things? No, I had a teammate basically tell me, hey, he was talking about how his girlfriend's a pharmacist and he's capable of getting all this stuff and all that type of stuff. And I was like, well, I don't do drugs or anything like that. And he's like, you ever take a Cialis? And I was like, yeah. He's like, I got a Cialis. And I was like.

But you said you don't do drugs or anything like that, but you had done drugs. Well, yeah, yeah. But no, he was talking about all these painkillers and all this different shit that he has. Oh, so it was other things on top. Yeah. That he has because his girlfriend's a pharmacist. And he was. Where is she getting this off-brand stuff from?

It's like. I don't know. People get a lot of stuff from China. I mean, that's what happened with Anderson. Yeah. Anderson got liquid Cialis from China and it was tainted. Yeah. Wow.

Look, this happens. I know for a fact it happens. I mean, everyone knows for a fact it happens. Yeah. The supplement industry has a giant issue with the people that mix the stuff. Like, if you have a vat and you're mixing up whatever creatine or something like that, and right before, I mean, if this is done in some country or some place that doesn't have excellent standards, it's not scrupulous, you could be scooping up steroids in the batch

before that and you just throw the creatine in it and some of it gets contaminated. Yeah. They don't clean it. Yeah. And that's pretty much, well, I'll get to that. Okay. So you take this off-brand Cialis. Yeah.

The guys like you ever do like Cialis viagras and all that stuff and i'm like yeah i've you know i've had mel enhancement pills before and he's like oh i got cialis and i'm like oh this is great so i ended up taking one of the cialis pills and um um and i thought everything was fine and dandy i had no clue um what had you know that i that I was now having something else in me that was illegal. I took the Seattle spill on June the 14th, June 16th. USADA came over to my house, 6 o'clock in the morning. Hey, what's up, guys? Got coffee going, offering everybody water bottles.

Super nice, hospitable, come in. Laughing and joking with them i had no clue that that test was going to be the test that derailed my life and um you know right before ufc 200 uh my manager monkey calls me over to his hotel room he's like hey i want to talk to you man i'm like what's going on he's like hey you're not going to be fighting i was like what are you talking about he's like, hey, you're not going to be fighting. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, you know, you didn't pass your drug test. And the level of hurt and just, and confusion, and I literally had an anxiety attack, and I had never had one of those before.

What did that feel like? I felt like the whole room just came in on me. Like, the whole room came down on me, and I was just, I couldn couldn't breathe i remember opening up his hotel window looking for a balcony so i could just breathe and realize that i'm like not trapped um there's literally the window opened that much i was like what the so you don't jump out hotel in vegas where was it yeah in vegas freaking, I'm breathing. They don't want gamblers leaping. Through the second, I'm breathing through the thing.

Calm myself down and I instantly started thinking about the weight of the, I had the weight of the world literally on my back. I knew that I knew that I wasn't going to be fighting a few hours before everyone else knew, the public knew. And I was just, I could already start hearing everything. Even my own coaches been looking at me like just their hearts were on the floor like I had done so much to get back to fighting at UFC 200 like getting my life in order getting the people around me in order

getting my health my mind you know just being in order to beat DC. And, like, literally right now I've done so much of the right things to be back in a good position. And right now, you know, people look at me as if I still don't have my shit together. But the only thing that I did was I took a pill that I thought was going to give me a boner. And literally it's caused me a lot of heartache and a lot of disappointment and a lot of, you know, just threw me back in here. Did you think in any way, shape, or form when someone gives you this pill and you don't know where it came from, you don't know what,

did you think, man, I don't know what's in this? No, I didn't think of it because I have been dealing with the athletic commission. I've been in the UFC for a long time. And I've taken little gas station dick pills before. And I've never failed a drug test. Ever. Did you ever think that you might have got lucky? No, I didn't think I got lucky.

I thought that you failed drug tests when you're doing sketchy shit. Right, but didn't you think there might be some sketchy shit? Some Chinese gas station rhino dick pill? What do you know about the rhinos? My friend Brian called it. He was on the podcast. He said, you know, John likes to party. I bet he took one of them dick pills.

No, that's funny. He called it. Yeah. Well, he was on. I've taken them several times before and with the Nevada State Athletic Commission I always pass my drug test and I know that

I would never do anything to cheat this sport. I have a lot of pride in my work ethic and knowing that dude, I've been skinny my whole career whooping people's ass. I'm not a knockout artist I win because I'm smart and I work hard. But with the Nevada Athletic Commission, I never had an issue.

And then I was suspended when USADA came. So I was never really educated on how serious USADA really was. Like, I came back to the game, and there's's like, oh, we got this new company named USADA instead of Nevada. What were you suspended for when USADA came? Oh, you mean when they came into the sport. I understand what you're saying. Not when they came into your house.

No, when USADA came into the sport, I was suspended because of my hit and run. And so I never had even met anyone who worked for USADA. I had never been sat down on a USADA seminar, what to do and what not to do and how serious it is and what could happen if you do this. And the only thing I knew is I had to report where I was at. Like, if I go to L.A. for the weekend, I got to let USADA know that I'm in L.A. because they could direct test me at any time. That's the only thing I really knew about USADA. I didn't know that doing something that I had done several times before could ultimately lose me a fight. Doing something that I had done several times before could ultimately lose me a fight.

So the only difference was I had taken little gas station pills, and I've taken Viagra before. This teammate gave me something that was Cialis. I thought the only thing that it would do was make me bigger and stronger for longer. That's all I thought was going to be happening. Right. And then when I find out that, that I just failed the drug test. Do you know that Viagra is actually illegal in the Olympics? I didn't know that. Yeah. You can't take that stuff. Viagra is a performance enhancer. It's a vasodilator, I believe. I believe that's how they describe it. And it actually has athletic

performance enhancing properties to it how does it how does it help you i don't know you'd have to look into that but i think it's similar to in a lot of ways to nitric oxide supplements like a pre like a pre-workout get your get your yeah yeah your blood cells open it does something to open up your blood cells and get you pumped i mean it does something not just to your dick but to all of your muscle yeah i don't know if i would want to be pumped up during a fight i don't think it works that way i yeah i don't know if i would want to be pumped up during a fight i don't think it works that way i mean i don't i think it actually can possibly potentially help endurance well yeah i know but i know that athletes take it for that reason that's why

it's banned from the olympics yeah but um but yeah you know i understand that wasn't your intention it was not my intention i had no i had no clue that I needed to report this to USADA because I thought, literally, I was reporting everything else. What supplements, what pre-workout, my amino acids, my protein powder. USADA had all my stuff. So what happens once you find out? How did you narrow it down to this pill? out did you how'd you narrow it down to this pill i literally i i went through my supplements and i um handed it to i hired a private lab and a lawyer and we started handing it giving them everything that i took which isn't really a lot of stuff at all you know stuff that everyone should

take fish oil basic basic supplements protein powder, fish oil, liver cleanser or whatever. Just grape seed extract, that kind of stuff. Yeah, just very multivitamins for men. Very basic stuff. Okay. And then Gat Nutrition was like, we've scanned all of our stuff. We know it's not from us. That Gat Nutrition website, though, is fucking hilarious. We went to the Gat Nutrition website the, you know, we've scanned all of our stuff. We know it's not from. That Gat Nutrition website, though, is fucking hilarious.

We went to the Gat Nutrition website the moment we found out about it. Someone said, John's sponsored by Gat Nutrition. So we go, okay, let's check that out. Gat Nutrition is some fucking dude who's just jacked. They have a lot of great products. If you want to get big and strong, then you can definitely go to them. But as soon as we saw that, we were like, what in the holy fuck is he taking oh no because i mean but people saw you you got gigantic from the power ironically completely completely uh completely natural that's i have great pride in being a

natural athlete but um but uh so they got they got all theAT stuff tested and clear, right? Everything was clear. Does GAT have other things that you don't regulate? Absolutely. But the things that they gave me, they were super smart about, and all the products I was taking were clear. And so my manager was like, think outside of the box. Did you take anything that could have possibly been? And I was like, I don't think so. And then I was i was like well one of my teammates did give me this this dick pill and he's like

i need those so we got those pills tested and sure enough they uh and their ingredients they listed about five products in their ingredients and they they actually, uh, there was actually like seven products, uh, two that weren't listed in the ingredients. The two estrogen blockers were never in their ingredients. Uh, so, um, it was a tainted pill. You understand what I'm saying? Yes. So, um, so the, you, you saw it, I was able to tell, okay, this was totally inattention. And there's no way in,

no way in hell. Um, John would take these estrogen blockers. I'm perfect. First of all, there was very small traces. So it wasn't like I was loaded up with estrogen blockers. Right.

And, um, why the fuck would they put estrogen blockers in a dick pill? In a dick pill. Uh, we believe that, uh, the factory that created these, these were maybe manufacturing these pills in a dirty laboratory or whatever.

So it's just tainted. Yes, because each pill that we had tested, some of them had more estrogen blockers. Some had almost no estrogen blockers. Some had small traces. Actually, none of the pills were consistent so it was obvious that and we certainly tested several different packages so it was obviously that that these pills were probably getting made in the same machine and there was just traces right literally which is enough to show up in your system yeah when you get drug literally we found some of these dick pills that had none no

estrogen blockers like damn why did I get that one? Yeah, exactly. So I took one that was just contaminated enough. And literally, I got tested two days later. And it was in my system. So it was obvious that it was a complete accident. Right. And even if I would have reported the dick pill to USADA, they would have read the label.

And the label would have never said that it was estrogen blocker in there and I still would have had a dirty. Right. Because it was a contaminated pill. Where does that leave you? How much time did they suspend you for? I got suspended for a year starting from back in July.

So now I fight in July of 2017. I love USADA. I love what they're doing. I don't agree with things like that. I don't agree with things like that because what you took does not enhance your performance. No, it doesn't.

Especially in such a trace amount. I feel like in certain circumstances, like there's been several fighters. Like Chad Mendes, he has, I believe he has eczema. And he was taking an eczema cream that had some sort of, was it a hormone precursor or a hormone peptide, I believe? Some sort of hormone peptide, I think, that enhances the use of this cream. I don't know the full, I'm obviously not a doctor or a scientist, but there's something about suspending someone for something like that that seems ridiculous.

Yeah. Well, in my situation, they, they, the, the, even your side of the lawyer, he showed, he showed a little bit of remorse. I could, I could feel that he felt bad about what was happening to me. Cause I think he could really, even the arbitrators, they could tell what had actually happened. Right. But their problem was, um, they said, John, it was just negligent.

Like, you didn't, you should have reported this pill. But that's, it seems to me that's silly. I mean, that's not. Even if I would have reported the pill, they would have read the ingredients and they would have never saw that there was a trace of something that wasn't advertised. So why suspend someone for something like that? Because they said... They have a zero tolerance policy. It was just like I was the first fighter

to ever take them into arbitration, and they were more upset that I didn't let them know that I took the pill than what actually happened. It was like the rule is you tell us what you take, and we can point you in a different direction. But I never told them what I took. My whole argument was even if I told you what I took, it still was never on the label.

So unless you guys were going to spend all the money to take it to a private lab or take it to a laboratory to test this individual pill, you get what I'm saying? I still would have ran into the same situation. I think it's great to protect people from people that are cheating. I don't think it's great to punish someone for taking something that has a trace amount of something that does them absolutely no benefit whatsoever. And clearly. And wasn't supposed to be in that pill.

And wasn't supposed to be in that pill. And clearly wasn't being taken to enhance athletic performance. Right. That seems silly. It seems like a mess. Right. It seems like a mess that, I mean, I understand there's zero tolerance policy. I don't agree with it in this or the Chad Mendes situation.

You know, there's weird ones like Yoel Romero. He tested positive for something. They found out that it was in one of the protein powders or something he was taking. It wasn't supposed to be in there. It wasn't listed that way. And they gave him an abbreviated sentence. He should have had no punishment whatsoever. But, I mean, my whole thing, Joe, is I'm so grateful.

I'm so optimistic, man. And I'm always looking for light in every situation. And I think that's the way I deal with things. I always believe there's going to be good at the end of the day. That's just how I am. I'm just so grateful. Where most people would be so upset with themselves and all this type of stuff, I'm really not. I'm upset about the fans that I let down so upset with themselves and all this type of stuff. I'm really not.

I'm upset about the fans that I let down who flew out to UFC 200 and things like that. But as far as the whole situation, I'm just glad that my name would no longer be associated with steroids. I'd rather be Boner Boy or whatever you want to call me. You know? Whatever you want to call me, but steroids, that was really bothering me. So I'm just glad that it's out what actually happened. Why did they choose to suspend you for so long? Just because of the negligence behind it.

They didn't like the fact that I was handed a sex pill, and I never turned it into them to check it out. And if they did, they still would have kicked you off of UFC 200. Yeah, exactly. So I don't know. I mean, they would have given you maybe a more abbreviated suspension, but still, it's just... It just seems ridiculous. I wonder when we hand pills into

USADA, or hand anything into USADA, do they read the label and say, oh yeah, you can take this? Or do they actually take it somewhere and test it? I'm sure they read the label. I mean, if they did that... So we still would have been in the same position. Yeah, they're not going to test things. I mean, that's expensive, and if it doesn't say it's on there, there's no reason. I'm sure they read the label. So we still would have been in the same position. Yeah, they're not going to test things. I mean, that's expensive, and if it doesn't say it's on there, there's no reason. I mean, if somebody gives you

whey protein powder, well, hey, let's test this and make sure that it doesn't have Clomid in it or whatever. It would take weeks to get it back, and it would cost thousands of dollars. And if you're doing that for every UFC fighter. So, yeah, that's my whole thing. Even if I would have told you guys I took it, you guys would have read the label and gave me the okay. Right right because you're allowed to have what's in viagra

and cialis and us we're actually allowed to but because mine's was tainted and i didn't ask they were just like well you never asked so we're going to suspend you so i don't really know why they decided to go ahead with the full maximum punishment but i i tend not to just question things i i i'm so i'm really young and and you know i believe that my best years my prime is even still ahead of me so i'm not even tripping about it i'm like you know whatever like you know i believe in god so i try to always point things back towards god i'm just saying well you know maybe this is god's plan for me maybe i need this time away from the the sport just to continue working on my own personal development and growth as a man. And I do believe I'm in a good place right now.

So I'm excited to see where I'll be in July when it's time for me to actually compete again. When in July are you released? I think around July. When was UFC 200? July 8th? July 5th? No, UFC 200 was December 10th or 8th? July 5th? No, UFC 200 was December 10th or 11th. December 11th, I believe.

UFC 200? No, that was, I'm sorry. That was UFC 205. UFC 200 was July 9th. Okay, so July 7th, I'll be eligible to fight. Two days before UFC 200. July 7th, 2017, I'll be able to compete. And I'd like to fight right in July.

Yeah, there's a big UFC July 4 card that we put on every year, but you're going to miss that. What do you think now when you look at the UFC title picture? Cormier just had a pullout. He injured himself. And Rumble Johnson decided not to fight Musashi. He decided to step back and wait for Cormier. I don't blame him.

Yeah. I don't blame him. I think that's a smart idea. Musashi is capable. He's a very smart fighter of beating Rambo Johnson. It's a high-risk, low-return. Yeah, low-return. Why do you need to beat Musashi?

Yeah. Yeah. The title fight picture is sort of waiting. A lot of it is waiting on you that's a big part of it yeah waiting on you to return yeah i'm excited to go back and get my baby have they had conversations with you about when you do return what kind of fight you would have would you go right to a title fight would you fight a contender no one has no one's spoken to me about uh whether i get an immediate shot or whether they make me fight at least once or twice before.

Or no, I have no clue what they're actually planning on doing. How often do you communicate with the UFC? I literally haven't spoken to Dana White since like a week before UFC 200. Now that the UFC has been sold. Actually, not a week before. Fight week of UFC 200, yeah. Now the UFC's been sold, and there's these new owners. What's your thoughts on all this? I'm excited to get to know the new owners of the UFC.

I've had a few interactions with Ari before. But obviously I've never dealt with him on a business level. But I'm excited. I do miss Lorenzo Fertitta. I think I had a great relationship with him. He was always the calm, cool, collected one, the one I could actually leave emotion behind and really have a good conversation with. So we had a great relationship in that way. But I'm excited about the new leadership.

Yeah, it's interesting, right? It's a new chapter, and there's a lot of who knows. That's what gets exciting, and they're obviously very entertainment business savvy and see where it leads to. When you look at the state of mixed martial arts today, what problems do you see in MMA? Do you see anything that stands out glaringly?

Like, here's some things that I think about. Weight cutting. Weight cutting is a giant issue. When you see all this work that's being put in by USADA to make sure that people aren't taking things to the point where someone like you who's taken something that's not a performance enhancer gets suspended for a year. And the idea is that you're supposed to be protecting fighters from someone who's doing something that's dangerous, right? That's the take behind it, that cheating and somehow it could cause potential danger or

damage to people. But what about weight cutting, man? I mean, isn't extreme weight cutting one of the most dangerous things? So, we're going to have to put this on pause. I have to peace. Oh, okay. Go ahead. Go ahead, Pete. I was drinking this water and coffee. One second, guys. Go ahead. Talk about weight cutting. John's going to be right back. Go right to that door.

Take the eggs on the line. And don't let your publicist talk you out of coming back in here. She's probably listening. Interesting. Very forthcoming with the boner pill talk i think that's important i mean if anyone's going to believe him that's the only way to to really get it out there i fucking hate weight cutting i do um i had a conversation with uh ari emmanuel about it and i'm going to have a conversation uh soon with novitsky about it

i just think is the most it's the most unnecessary and dangerous aspect in fighting. The most important aspect in fighting is fighters being healthy and in shape and competing to the best of their abilities. And if there's anything that inhibits that other than not training, it's the dehydration effect of weight cutting. I think weight cutting is, it's terrible. And now that they can't use IVs, I'm obviously, again, I hate to have to say this again, I'm not a doctor. So I don't know what, what is the most effective method of

rehydrating, but I've talked to doctors and I guess they vary in their opinions because some people say it's orally is the best way through drinking water slowly. But some people say it's not. Some doctors say no. IV is a far superior method, especially when it comes to rehydrating the brain, which could take as much as 72 hours. I think it's interesting that in boxing, most of the deaths have come from the lighter weight divisions. And they attribute that also to weight cutting and dehydration. Hey, so yeah, my boss has said that I'm talking way too much,

and we're going to have to end this thing. I knew it. I knew it. She's like, you said too much about the dick pills. Mom on the dick pills. Longer, faster, harder, Jones, really? How much weight do you cut? I don't really cut a lot of weight at all. I get myself down to about 220 on fight week.

What do you weigh right now? Right now I'm 230, 232, 230. But I get myself down to about 220 during fight week. And then I make sure that the day of weigh-ins, I cut about five pounds of water. That's nothing. No, it's nothing. But that's a testament to just, you know. Preparation.

Yeah, I've been doing it for so long now. I know my job is to be, you know, to have my weight together. When you see Conor McGregor weigh in at 145 and he looks like like death right you know that when i see those that that's what scares the shit out of me yeah when i see people that are just clearly cutting way too much weight or the worst one i ever saw was travis luter when he fought anderson silva travis luter he had like his lips were dried up and cracked and he was shuffling to the scale. He couldn't walk. He didn't have the strength to pick his feet up and walk. He was just shuffling towards it, and he still didn't make the weight. Yeah, it's shitty.

It scares me the most because there's not a lot of options when it comes to weight classes. If someone's 185 and they go, you know, man, I'm having a hard time fighting 185, then they look at you and they're like, fuck that. This is 205? That's a 20-pound jump. Right.

20 pounds is a big jump. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah, as far as weight cutting for me, I just, you know, it's never really been an issue for me. I've always made weight. I've never come close to missing weight. I just think, you know.

But aren't you lucky, though, that you're in the neighborhood of 205? Like, what if you were just a little bigger and, you know, and you're in the heavyweight division? If I was a little bigger than I would, I would go to heavyweight. Um, but you know, a part of, of our, of our job is to, uh, keep our weight under control. Right. You know, if you know, you're going to be fighting at 205, you have no business walking around at, you know, uh, 250. Right. You know what I mean? So, you know, you just, you know. Do you think there's enough weight classes? No, I would like there to be at least another weight class

when it comes to us big boys. You know what I mean? I would love it if there was. Like a 225? Like a 225, yeah. I believe if there was a 225 pound weight class, I'd be a two belt holder myself. Do you feel like that would be a better weight class for you?

I love 205. I make 205 just fine. But 225, I compete against a 225 founder any day. Face a guy who's showing up fight night at 240 or whatever. I spar against heavyweights pretty much every – I've been doing it my whole career anyway. So it would be great to see something that bridges that gap a little bit from 205 to 265. Yeah, I would like to see it. I would like to see between 55 and 70, 70 and 85.

Just 15 pounds is a giant leap, 20 pounds from 85 to 205. And then, of course, 205 to heavyweight. That's a huge leap. That's 65 pounds. That's gigantic, yeah. A lot of people are like, why don't you go up to heavyweight and try to win the belt there? I'm just like, you realize what you're asking me to do? These guys are very skilled.

These guys are very skilled. And they can weigh, what, 60 pounds more than me? That's very dangerous. But have you thought about doing heavyweight? I do want to challenge for the heavyweight title. But I'm waiting for the perfect opponent. to challenge for the heavyweight title, but I'm waiting for the perfect opponent. And when you do do that, when you challenge for the heavyweight title, are you going to gain weight or are you going to fight at the weight you're at?

I'll fight right around 230. So you'll just not lose any weight at all? Yeah, I'll try to eat a lot and make sure my endurance and speed and agility is where it needs to be. And I've beaten up a lot of heavyweights, man. You know, only people who are at Jackson's have seen that. I've submitted a lot of heavyweights. I've slammed a lot of heavyweights.

I've manhandled a lot of heavyweights. But, and I've done it right at the weight I am now. So I know that I'm capable. I just want to make sure that I compete against the right stylistic matchup for me when I do go to heavyweight and challenge for that title. One of the things you said earlier that I thought was really interesting is you said you're not going to spar hard again. Yeah, no, not until it was time.

I feel like I've been majorly preserving myself. So leading up to the Ovin St. Preux fight, I took almost, I took no concussions whatsoever. And then I've been suspended now for another year and I've taken no concussions. So while I feel like a lot of these guys are in this race to get better, I'm getting a lot better. I'm getting a lot stronger. My wrestling and jiu-jitsu is getting a lot sharper. But I've completely, my brain is feeling great right now. I haven't been polluting it with shit, and I haven't damaged it.

And so I just feel like you got the best fighter in light heavyweight history who's still the youngest guy in the division who hasn't taken any damage whatsoever and is completely regenerating himself. And I'm going to come back and have this explosive second half of a career. who hasn't taken any damage whatsoever and is completely regenerating himself. And I'm going to come back and have this explosive second half of a career. Now, there's a lot of guys that are doing that now where they're not sparring hard. Cowboy barely spars at all. I don't think he even spars.

He does, like, some tactical sparring where, you know, it's just tap, touch, just move around. But he's mostly just doing drills. That's what I'm going to get into. He said he changed that after the Dos Anjos fight. He said when he lost to Rafael Dos Anjos, he just felt like maybe he had diminished himself too much with hard sparring. A lot of these guys, they leave their career in the gym. You know, like you get no points.

There's a few guys that come to mind right now at Jackson's who get punched in the head. I'm sitting there watching them spar. I watch a lot of fighting, and I'm still a huge student of the game, but I'm not doing it myself these guys laugh and like you know they get punched and they start giggling or they just and that's the dumbest shit to me ever like you know getting punched in the head pisses me off if I leave practice with a headache I'm pissed you know I feel like I just took away from myself or just that was one more punch I

could have saved for an actual event so right now um you know I have a great chin I've never been rocked or wobbled um and uh I want to keep it that way I'm going to preserve my myself um because the skills will come um but you know that brain once it's once it's uh jello is jello forever you know it is jello forever and that's a scary thing when you see guys go. When you see a guy like maybe Chuck Liddell is one of the best examples ever because he had an iron jaw at one point in time. He was just indestructible. And then you saw him just get wobbled by shots that normally he would just eat like a Tic Tac.

Yeah, yeah. And when it goes, it just goes and it does not come back. Yeah, I'm saving my shit, Joe. I hear you. I'm saving it. I want you to. Yeah. Now, Jackson's is such a crazy place because it's a hotbed of mma talent and it's a it's a magnet for talented people to come there to get better because they know they're

going to be training with a bunch of animals there but i'm hearing now with the opening of the new place you guys just got so many tough dudes coming there trying to make a name right do you have an issue with that when it comes to sparring, where guys want to try to make a name sparring you? I personally don't have an issue with it. So me, since we've had our new gym, it's a gigantic facility, and we need people to pay the bills. So we literally allow a lot of people to come into the gym

who I don't think are always qualified to be in the gym. But we allow everybody to come. So anybody off the street, like any normal person? No, you can't. So our gym manager, he does have an extensive tryout thing that he does where he puts you through jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and kicking and striking and makes sure you're knowledgeable about the game. So you have to have experience. How much experience do they have to have? Do they have to be like an amateur MMA fighter? There's a lot of jiu-jitsu like you just you

can't you can't be a guy off the street who don't know who doesn't know shit but outside of that you know if you have a general idea of martial arts and you know that we we're opening the door to a lot of people right now so is it like a pro fight gym or do they offer classes for beginners there's amateur classes um so if you you know almost nothing, you're in the amateur classes. And then there's the pro practices where you literally get guys who aren't very knowledgeable training next to me and Holly Holm, Cowboy Cerrone, and all of us. So it's a fan experience for sure.

It's an experience of a lifetime for a lot of people. And I'm happy for a lot of these guys who come in here, inspiring martial artists and get to train with me and the rest of us because I can only imagine wanting to, you know, you get to play ball with LeBron James and you just got out of college or you never even went to college. I am happy for them as long as they don't get in my way. That is the big difference, though,

is someone who wants to come and play with LeBron James, you want to make a name for yourself. So with me. You could dunk on LeBron James and everybody would be like, oh, I can't believe he did that. But there's a big difference between that and fighting. I have a way of not letting this affect my game personally. I'm a decent judge. I can read people's character a little bit. I'm a decent judge like I can read

people's character a little bit and uh if I see you for the first time you are obviously about 260 205

whatever 220 and you it's all about the way you look at me so if you come in the gym and you even look like you have an ounce

of a chip on your shoulder or like an ounce of holy shit that's John Jones I'm getting ready to to spar him today like like anything weird that's going on with your eye contact with me,

then I'm just not going to mess with you. I'll say hi to you and welcome to Jackson's. What if they say, hey, man, do you want to spar? I'm like, hey, no. I just don't have any room for people trying to prove anything with me. There's a lot of that there, isn't there? Yeah, it happens. So the best way you can work with me when you come to Jackson's is come up,

introduce yourself, be kind, be polite, be respectful, and show me that you are here to get better and that you're not here to, you know. Even some guys, they come in and ask for a picture of their first day here, and I'm just like, dude, Earn, how about you come come here work your ass off for a few days a few weeks or whatever and then get to this place where you feel like you're comfortable to ask for a picture instead of just being here being a fan people want those fucking pictures yeah just like instantaneously yeah it's like bro you're here you're in the church right now you're in the mech like you don't take a picture here like if you don't yeah i don't know i just i know what you mean no yeah you know what i mean like yeah you should that's not where your

mind should be at yeah earn this facebook page right yo look at look what i trained with today just like told you i was a bad motherfucker yeah uh-huh yeah or yeah you'll see that they'll tag you in a picture and it's like yeah just train with with the goat and really we didn't even train together like you were just in the room right you know a little stuff like that but right but um but i do see the benefits of having so many new people coming in i mean everyone has something to teach and you know you can learn from from anybody from any country if you will if you have an open mind enough and a lot of the guys come in with a great attitude and they're just really grateful to be there and they're and they um they go with a lot of the top dogs and you know we we can kind of beat them up a little bit you know because they're just really grateful to be there and they go with a lot of the top dogs and

you know we can kind of beat them up a little bit you know because they're the new guy or whatever but every once in a while you get that one guy with something to prove and I've really came up with a great way to protect myself from those type of people. But you've run into those? Most people like I'm always very defensive when i'm going with a guy who i feel like he could be trying to prove something like even when we're drilling my defense is always on i don't i don't give someone the opportunity to take a swing or take a punch i've had one guy uh hit me with a monstrous overhand right while we were drilling and that was intentionally to knock me out and uh instead of retaliating, I said, man, you okay?

And he's like, yeah, I'm all right. I'm sorry. I just don't know what happened. And I just, okay, well, that was fun, man. Nice working with you. Just would never, ever work with you again. That one guy punched me in the balls intentionally too, not too long ago.

And that was his last time ever training with me as well so it's smart that's a smart strategy yeah it's a very smart way to stay away from you yeah yeah you do find those disturbed people that get involved in fighting and um they do want to take a chance at a guy like john jones just take a swing at you, man. What if I connect and knock him out? I knocked out John Jones. Right. I go like, uh, the few times that it, that it has happened to, uh, I'll, I'll let my teammates know I'm going to match what you're trying to do to me. So, you know, don't be surprised if I fuck you up with something that's a little bit more than what you would do to a training partner. Right. If you, if I realized you're trying to hurt me. Do you meditate, John? I used to meditate a lot.

Now I'm more big into visualization. When did you used to meditate? Um, right around 2000, around 2010, 2011. Um, I went through this huge spiritual thing where I, um, I became obsessed with, um, the power of the mind. And, um, I got into a deep like really deep just meditation visualization and just realizing how powerful our minds actually are like how we really do paint our world with our thoughts and our level of self-belief and so right around 2010 I just took myself to this different mental level where I took myself from being an average Joe, kind of. You probably hate average Joe, huh?

Doesn't bother me. I took myself. You're like, what's an average Joe? I'm so used to that name. It's such a goofy name. It's good. It's like a blank. It's like cardboard.

It's like there's nothing to it. Yeah. It's like a blank. It's like cardboard. Yeah. There's nothing to it. Yeah. So I took myself from being very average minded to actually believing that I was the shit and believing that I could be the shit and that I could be the goat and be the greatest and never lose. And to like I took myself to a different place mentally.

And a lot of it came from mental practice and meditation and visualization and just seeking knowledge from people who are strong believers guys like uh um les brown and tony robbins and guys like that i just became really obsessed with just learning about the power of the mind so i used to meditate now i just kind of i have a lot of things that i've that stuck with me a lot of ways of believing that stuck with me that just subconsciously i know uh who i, what I'm capable of, and how I believe and how powerful my mind actually is. I'm a firm believer in meditation because I believe that human beings can get caught up, especially someone involved in a very difficult endeavor like you are. You can get caught up in the momentum of your life. And sometimes it's very hard to reset it's very hard

to to separate yourself from it and get a balanced and as much as you can objective perspective and i think one of the best ways to do that is to take time where you sit and you close your eyes and you do nothing and just concentrate on your breathing and just set it all aside and extract yourself. Extract your consciousness from the momentum of your life. And I think a lot of people don't do that. And they get caught up in this hurricane of existence where everything is just constantly going on. Your phone won't stop ringing. There's fucking people knocking at your door.

You got this going on, that going on. You got to go catch this flight. And oh, shit, you got a fight coming up. And oh, shit, you got this and that. And sometimes you lose yourself. You lose yourself in that wave of life. I definitely lost myself at one point in my life. And I feel like right now I'm at this position where I am myself

and I can see Jon Bones Jones and I can look at my career from a fan perspective. You get what I'm saying? And actually make fun of myself. Like, damn, you're a fucking idiot. What have you done? You know what I mean? I have a good way of

detaching something inside of me and and and seeing what's happening and okay oh no it's not over all you gotta do is just do this do that do that and you get what i'm saying yeah um so i'm not i don't i'm not necessarily meditating these days but i do have the capability of taking away who I actually am at this point and realizing that this is just a part of me or this is just a situation in my life. This isn't my actual life. This isn't my final destination. This is just a small moment in time that I'm going through right now. You get what I'm saying? Right.

I get what you're saying. So that's my form of meditation. I step away from terrible situations and look at myself as if it's the future. And I'm looking back on what's happened to me or what's happening. And I say, okay, how can I get myself out of this? How can I make this better? What do I need to do to turn this around? What do I, you get what I'm saying?

Right. No, I do get what you're saying. I'm completely emerged in the moment and thinking that, oh, I can't get out of it, like, you know, so. Now, I said earlier that UFC 205 was in December. I know it's November. That's what I fucked up. 205.

Oh, 205, yeah. Yeah. Oh, 205, right. I think it's 200, sorry. Yeah, but what I'm thinking of in December, when is your grappling match with Dan Henderson? December 11th. That's December 11th. Okay, that's what I'm fucked up on.

What is this? Is this EBI rules? So this is submission only. Is this Chael Sonnen's event? I think he's the president of it or something like that. Yeah. Do you have the information for all that? Let's put it up to tell people how they can see that.

What made you decide to do this? Just to mix it up while you're off? Yeah, they reached out to me. I did a small grappling event. Like, I was at an autograph signing. I saw that. Yeah, some guy was like, hey, you ever roll competitively? And I was like, no, actually, I haven't since 2009 or something.

Like, I did one jiu-jitsu match my whole career, and I won it with four submissions against these guys or whatever. He's like, man, you should come over and roll with me. And I'm like, what belt are you? And he's like, I think the guy who challenged me was like a purple belt or something. And I'm like, you know, I really don't do that type of stuff. You know, I would have to go home. I don't have any clothes or anything.

And he's like, oh, we're selling geese over here and rash guards. And I'm like, I was like, I don't think I'm going to roll, man. And so he's like, well, at least come over and say hi. There's a lot of kids over there, a lot of people who just love to see you. Come show some support to the jiu-jitsu community. I'm like, all right, I could do that. And so when I went over there after my autograph signing, there was a bunch of people standing around and I was greeting everybody. And the guy was like, hey, like, are you going to roll with me or what?

And I was just like, and a lot of people heard him. And I was just like, I feel like when someone's trying to, I feel like someone wins when they call you out and you don't oblige them. Right. You know what I mean? And this guy's head, it's a small victory knowing that I backed down. And we're not punching. It's jiu-jitsu, right? So no one's going to get hurt.

And it's like, you know what? Let me live a little and just do this. I'm sure the kids are going to love it and people are going to love it. So I was like, all right, give me a rash guard. So they gave me a rash guard. And I literally, I didn't even warm up. I just kind of did one of these. And then I ended up tapping these two guys out fairly quick.

And I think some of these people And then I ended up tapping these two guys out fairly quick. And I think some of these people from Submission Underground, they saw those videos and they're starting this new promotion where they're actually paying fighters. They're taking care of the athletes. Really? Yeah. And do people watch it on pay-per-view? Is that what it is? So I think you can watch it online. You can stream it online for a price.

Okay. So here it is. Oh, okay. It's flowgrappling.com. F-L-O grappling.com. Sunday, December 11th at 2.30. And I think this is EBI rules. If this is the Chael Sundin thing.

See if you can see that in there, Jamie. Scroll up and see what the rules are. I still don't even know what the rules are. I think it's submission only. Yeah, it's submission only, but I think EBI rules is a very interesting. Educate me, bud. EBI is Eddie Bravo Invitational Rules. What he did is he figured out a way to avoid draws.

And what he does is he has guys, they fight for or they grapple for a determined time period. Then at the end of the time period. Eight minutes, I heard. Yeah, they exchange bad positions. Like one guy will start off. Arm bar or back. Well, you start off in what's called spider web. So spider web is side control with not the arm bar locked up, but the arm hooked.

You know, the arm hooked. So you have your legs across, arms trapped and ready go so the guy on the bottom is trying to escape you're trying to hold him down um or you can start off with uh the over under from back control so you don't like have a choke locked in but you have over under you have both hooks in and you're on the back and they say ready go so it's how fast the person can escape versus how fast you could submit them at the end of the exchange back and forth say if you submit your guy and then he has an opportunity to try to submit you if you submit can escape versus how fast you can submit them. At the end of the exchange back and forth, say if you submit your guy,

and then he has an opportunity to try to submit you, if you submit him faster than he submitted you, you win. If you submit him and he doesn't submit you, you win. What if you escape faster? You both escape, and you do it again. And then if you both escape again, you do it one more time. And then they calculate all the time it took for each one to escape,

and the person who has the least amount of time and escaped the quickest winds up winning. Oh, I'm winning this. I'm winning this shit. Dan Henderson. Dan Henderson is quite a bit smaller than you, too. Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah.

I wonder how much he weighs right now. Well, he fought at 185, and I don't think he's cutting a whole lot of weight. He's not a big guy. Yeah. And it's interesting, like him fighting Michael Bisping I think that's probably gonna be his last fight a lot of people thought he should have won that fight super close fight He retired didn't he? I think he did. Yeah, I think he did. I think he decided that's it Yeah, so I'm sure this means a lot to him to be able to be able to beat me even in a grappling match

That's quite the way to end your career. Yeah, so I don't how hard he's training but i've i'm putting a little effort into it for sure yeah well you tell me before you're just getting really in love with jiu-jitsu i do i do love jiu-jitsu yeah my my professor has uh he's a great coach man uh they call him tusa um that's i think it's portuguese for like buck tooth or something like that um but his real name is roberto alucar he's several time world champion jiu-jitsu i think it's Portuguese for like bug tooth or something like that. But his real name is Roberto Alucard. He's a several-time world champion in jiu-jitsu. I think he's beat Vinny Magalhães quite a few times. Wow. He's won all these.

That's huge. Yeah, all these world championships. I think he's a five-time world champion. Wow. And he literally is right there with me every practice. I've never done gi training but he um he uh he doesn't settle like i'm technically a white belt but he's he every position he's like you know you gotta do this right you gotta do put your hand here you know make this tighter super technical yeah super

technical and that's great i feel like i'm getting pretty good right now that's awesome man if you just dedicate yourself to that before you know you come back should, a guy like you, have a big jump. People are going to hate me, bro. My style is going to be like Maya. I'm just going to take people down and freaking ride your ass out and freaking submit you. Don't expect any more stand-up striking from me. Really?

I'm joking, bro. Yeah, you can't. I'm telling you. Who knows what you're going to do, right? I don't know what I'm going to do at this point, but I'm getting better, and I'm preserving myself. Listen, man, it's good to see you smile. It's good to see you laugh.

It's good to see you happy. It's good to see you optimistic about your future, and I think you've got a great perspective right now, and I really hope you keep it together, man. I'm a big fan as a person, as a fighter. I'm glad we did this. I am, too. I am, too. All right.

All right, brother. That's it, folks. We're done for today. See ya. Bye. Jon Jones! That was fun. That was.

That was good. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.