Jon Jones Quotes
Mixed Martial Artist
I believe I have the attitude of a champion and a winner, and I'm not apologetic for it.
Just staying healthy, that is true wealth and true happiness.
There's never been a southpaw fighter to make it five rounds with me. These are championship fights, and most of them can't even make it out of the normal rounds. Fought Chael Sonnen, TKOed him in round one. Fought Vitor Belfort. He made it to round four when I ended up submitting him.
You have to turn the lemons life gives you into lemonade, and you have to take time to sit back and enjoy it.
I've come to expect more out of myself - as a citizen, as a man, as an athlete - to reach a better place, a place I've never been.
I just keep my eyes open and focus on the things I'm not good at and what makes other people better than me - technique and things outside the Octagon.
I feel as if I'm God's champion, and I have a lot of pride in that.
Fighting is not what I do - it's who I am. It's what I was meant to do, what I was meant to be. I knew that right after my first MMA practice.
It's a cold world out there, and this world will pass you by if you give another man anything over yourself.
For a long time, I consciously tried to be a good person for others. Not anymore. Caring about other people keeps me in line, but I've decided to just be myself.
A champion without his belt is like a knight without his sword. I've got to have it.
I'm extremely confident. I do believe my own hype. And I'm working towards making it true.
Fitness really changed my life.
I love Twitter in particular because it allows me to grow and see how people feel about the decisions I make. My followers, they're always pretty honest with me. I love the honesty I get. I also find motivation in it.
Life is supposed to be about love and good times, and so I've forgiven myself after paying the consequences of my bad decisions, and I'm ready to move forward and allow my life to be a light to others that it's never over, even for a person like me, who has lost a tremendous amount of respect among my peers, my fans, my friends and family.
I grew up originally in Rochester. It was where I was born and a very tough neighbourhood with a lot of violence. I consider myself lucky. When I was aged 11, in 1998, Dad moved us to a suburban area from what was a ghetto area. It gave me a chance of survival.
A lot of coaches in MMA focus on MMA wrestling. My coach, his high school team is ranked 10th in the nation. Izzy Martinez is very connected to the wrestling community.
My parents always kept us in the house. We weren't allowed to spend the night at other people's houses. We were sheltered kids.
I am an athlete in every sense of the word. Athlete, martial artist.
I just need to be myself and allow things to happen. If it's God's will, good things will happen.
We're all going to make mistakes; they're inevitable. It's what you do after these mistakes that matters.
I notice that I'm full of myself, and I am arrogant to some degree, but it's honestly only when it comes to talking about MMA.
One day when I was bored, I just went down to a powerlifting gym, Via Strength Systems in Albuquerque. I knew I needed to expend my energy somehow. I started working out with them four days a week. I became obsessed with lifting and being fit.
The struggles don't define you. It's how you handle them that determines who you are.
I'll see trash talk and people telling me why they're favorite fighter is going to beat me. It motivates me for sure.
I'm not scared of anything.
In a fight, you got to know that there's a strong chance you're going to get hurt. But at the same time, you know, most of the injuries you sustain in fighting are not career-ending injuries.
I don't really deal in trash talk too much. But I show my confidence.
If you do something bad, it doesn't mean you're a bad person. It means you had bad judgment.
I will get out there and train harder than anyone, five times a day sometimes. You have to be a special person to do that - like, special forces, military maybe.
I've really tried everything in my power to get my life together.
It was really tough being in jail. It doesn't get much lower. You're in a filthy room. The food is terrible, and you're surrounded by people who have done all types of crazy crimes. You have nothing that belongs to you, not even your own underwear. It's just terrible.
I'm a champion, and I believe that if you're a champion, you can't be afraid to go out there and test yourself against the greatest challenges.
Daniel Cormier has been a model champion. He will be a champion for the rest of his life.
Having that Christian base keeps me focused on what I have to do. It keeps me out of the clubs and in the gym.
You've got to give your past attention, but you've got to forgive yourself, acknowledge what you did wrong, and be a man, taking responsibility. You can't not fly anymore because of the things you've been through. You've got to believe in a brighter future, that better version of yourself.
The moment I let fear slip in is the moment that the fights are gonna start getting closer and closer.
I absolutely hate when people mention Rashad Evans.
Muhammad Ali was hated, and then he was loved at the very end. Floyd Mayweather was hated, and a lot of people are really coming around on him. So, I'm just trying to stay positive and try not to offend too many people along the way and hope for the best end result.
I think once you start to think that you're the man, and you know it all, and your style is unbeatable and stuff like that, that's when you get caught and clipped and get humbled really fast.
Glover Teixeira is a phenomenal opponent.
I just would hate to have to fight my own teammate. I would never want to.
To see my little brother Chandler outdoing me, it's great; I want to be able to cross-market and feed off his star power.
I'll fight anywhere, man.
When it comes to fighting and other fighters, I try to be respectful.
Muhammad Ali was such an original - his antics, his character, his charisma, his strength, his individuality.
I wouldn't argue that Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA.
I'm not saying Gustafsson isn't a champion. He's not the champion that I am. He's not a champion at all. I've won the belt seven times. He got tapped out by Phil Davis and lost to me fair and square. This guy gets so much praise. Having a close fight with me was the greatest thing he's ever done.
My friends and family all know me, and that's the important thing.
When it comes to MMA, there is a big chip on my shoulder. There is a way that I look at myself. I think it's really, really important, and it's something I'm not really apologetic for it. As I get older, and I win more, I start to embrace it even more.
Even though I have bad qualities in my personal life, as an athlete, I can turn it on.
Growing up, I was poor. In college, I was poor. I never had anything.
A rough beginning doesn't have to mean there is a rough end.
My wrestling dream was to become a Division I national champion. That was my No. 1 dream - not Olympics, not money. Just winning that tournament.
I would love to fight Brock Lesnar. He's a massive dude.
I was never popular. I always kind of wanted to be accepted with the rich kids, with the cool kids, and I never had that.
College, for me, was more about wrestling than actually going to classes.
I got in the limelight at a young age. At age 19, people were already comparing me to Anderson Silva.
Fighting was something inside of me that I didn't realize was there.
The biggest challenge is learning how to psych yourself up into believing in yourself as you walk into the Octagon.
In my mind, I've never lost a fight.
Whenever I talk about Christ out loud, or I tweet a verse or say something in reference about Christ, a lot of people lash out and aren't very excited to hear about my love for Christ.
I would study the best, the most flashy, the guys that had that flair, the guys that had that wow. I'd study those fighters, and I made up my mind that I'd be all of those at once.
The first time I crawled into the octagon, I just felt like an animal, you know? Like a creature, like I wasn't quite human.
I feel like a lot of my fans hold high expectations of me when it comes to inside the Octagon - not so much outside of the Octagon - but I feel like most of my performances are pretty dominant, so I don't feel like I have the luxury to not perform in an extremely impressive fashion.
I put pressure on myself and feel pressure from my fans to not only win but to look great doing it.
It's not my business what other people think of me.
Being labeled as someone who would cheat hurts more than anything else I've ever been through in my career.
I often get people that come up to me with the UFC 151 poster with me and Dan on it and ask me to sign it.
My opinion, football is the most dangerous sport there is. After that, I'll give it to probably boxing.
I'm very aware of my image and the perception of me.
When you say, 'When you're wrong, you're wrong,' I would 100 percent agree. I've always handled my punishments head on.
As long as I'm taking care of my family and breaking records and continuing to excel and continuing to find new endorsements - everything's working.
I don't enjoy hitting people; I enjoy outsmarting them.
Conor McGregor has been a tremendous inspiration to me.
The higher the risk, the higher the reward.
When I fight someone who's not a good person, I want to beat him.
Call it weakness if you will, but even the toughest individuals need assistance getting back on track.
I have tons of pictures of myself as a kid with my medals, and they were never gold medals.
I don't believe a champion is the biggest, baddest, meanest dude in the world. I think the champion is like a warrior; it's like the head knight or lead samurai: humble men of integrity, respect, and honor that treat people kindly.
I genuinely wanted to be an inspiration to other people and inspire people and be a role model.
I'm definitely very excited to see Cormier fight Brock Lesnar. I think Daniel Cormier wins the fight. He's just too fast. I feel like, when I fought him, he was quicker than me with certain combinations. I can only imagine he's going to be a lot quicker than Brock Lesnar.
I want to take this time to thank Daniel Cormier for being my biggest rival and motivator. He has absolutely no reason to hang his head. He has been a model champion, a model husband, a model father, a teammate, a leader, and I aspire to be a lot more like that man, because he's an amazing human being.
I've convinced myself I'm something special. When you do that, man, you're dangerous, especially when you have the athleticism and work ethic to back it up.
I'm here to fight; I'm not here to protect whether you think I'm a good person or not. I've given up on that.