Jon Jones recalls the exact moment he knew he needed to change

UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones is arguably one of, if not the greatest, MMA fighter of all time. Jones, who became the youngest UFC champion of all time at the age of 23 when he defeated Shogun Rua via submission at UFC 126, is now on a path to reclaim the UFC light heavyweight championship after he was stripped of the belt almost year ago to date.

That journey continues tonight at UFC 197 as Jones fights Ovince Saint Preux for the interim UFC light heavyweight championship.

Jones spoke to Fox Sports to recall the exact moment he knew something needed to change.

“The moment I realized I had to change, honestly the big moment for me was the night Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier fought for my light heavyweight championship and I saw DC walk away with it,” Jones said on Wednesday at the UFC 197 open workouts. “In my mind, I beat both of those guys. I was at home with my wife and I thought to myself ‘here I am, I’m possibly one of the best fighters to ever play this sport and I’m here at my house without a belt, without a sponsor, just completely wasting talent.’

“I should be at this arena in front of thousands of people, in front of millions of people at home but I’m sitting here in my kitchen watching this fight by myself with my family.”

“That night really is what made me realize ‘Jon, you are ruining something very special and it’s time for you to pull your head out of your ass and do things right and really ace the rest of this story, the rest of this book’,” Jones said. “So that’s what I’m going to do.”