Jon Jones becomes youngest UFC champion: Today in MMA history

(Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 19, 2018.)

If you want to tell the story of how Jon Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history, you have to start with the dog. His name is BJ, and he's a 7-month-old German Shepherd mix who showed up in Newark, New Jersey on March 19, 2011 to compete for Mauricio Rua's UFC light heavyweight title. It was somewhat recent for Jones.

Places like the one Jones was in that week — a luxury hotel, a TV show set, a hotel ballroom converted into a UFC training space — are probably not places you should bring your dog. Dew.

Still, on St. Patrick's Day, he was in the lobby of the Penn Station Hilton, leading the dog around on a leash, avoiding fans and drunks, like a man enjoying the special perks that come with being a star. He was smiling and confident. No one would dare say you can't bring dogs here.

However, being a star was still new to Jones at the time. Although he is only 23 years old and less than three years removed from his professional debut, he is now on the brink of domination, and an injury to his teammate opened the final door.

It's been a whirlwind few months for Jones. In February, he easily defeated Ryan Bader via second-round submission on the undercard of UFC 126. He was still celebrating his victory inside the cage when UFC commentator Joe Rogan broke the news. With Rashad Evans absent from his title fight against champion “Shogun” Rua, the UFC asked Jones to replace him a little more than a month later.

That didn't matter to Jones, who seemed to see even his teammates' misfortunes as another inevitable step in God's plan to put the UFC title around his waist. Everything worked out as expected and the mixed martial arts phenom couldn't have been happier as he shouted a Bible verse after his easy victory.

But for the light heavyweight duo of Jones and Evans, this was the beginning of the end, the first signs of a fracture that would soon lead to their split.

Those nagging questions have plagued the pair ever since Jones first arrived at the Jackson-Wink mixed martial arts gym, where former champion Evans reigned supreme at the top of the light heavyweight division. Will they ever fight? Was it inevitable, as Jones rose rapidly through the ranks and Evans was constantly hovering at or near the top?

Evans took on the role of mentor. His advice to the young Jones: “Don't listen to any questions like that.” Don't start talking about it yourself. Shut it down before it starts, like Evans did with his longtime friend and training partner Keith Jardine. Refuse to discuss even hypotheticals.

Jones listened for a moment. But it soon became increasingly clear that he would not be content to continue in the role of his pupil for long. He considered himself a champion – and right away. When Evans' title shot went to Jones due to a knee injury, it only seemed to confirm to him that he was a special fighter, a fighter of choice. All he had to do was show up in Newark and beat a guy whose fights he had watched and studied.

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Jon Jones attend the weigh-in at UFC 128.

But it still has to be said that the champion is not the man he once was. Time was cruel to the “general”. Six years ago, he won two fights in one night, knocking out both Alistair Overeem and Ricardo Arona at the 2005 Final Conflict to win the PRIDE FC Middleweight Grand Prix. So whenever the world's best 205 was talked about, he ended up being mentioned. Pounder, but his transition to the UFC was a tough one.

Rua struggled to recover from injury and regain his previous form, losing to Forrest Griffin in his UFC debut in 2007 before narrowly defeating Mark Coleman, with both men looking exhausted. . However, a KO win over a declining Chuck Liddell in 2009 helped get him back on track, and he lost a controversial decision to then-champion Lyoto Machida in his first UFC title shot. After that, Rua bounced back with a first-round KO victory in this tournament. rematch.

Still, Rua was 29 years old when he first showed up to defend his belt. That would have been a tough enough test for Evans, but what about Jones? He was bigger, stronger, faster and younger. Going around the media before the match, the young challenger showed off his fresh, injury-free body. He could jump into the air and do cartwheels if he wanted to, and unlike the champion, his joints didn't creak like an old ship stuck in ice. Was it good?

“You know, when I was younger I thought 'Shogun' was cool because he was a 23-year-old PRIDE champion. And I love Jose Aldo because he's a 23-year-old UFC champion. '' Jones said before the game. “Of course I'm not scared. It's very possible. Now I understand that I need to have people nearby who will always be there, and there will be more distractions.” But I'm ready. And I promise myself that I won't let myself fall by the wayside. I'm too close to my dream to slow down or start doing something stupid. And I won't do anything stupid. I'm going to win this fight.”

Jon Jones before his fight against “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128.

The event was held in Newark primarily because at the time the UFC was as close to New York City as possible. The sport wasn't legalized or regulated in the Empire State until 2016, but for about 8 million residents in the five boroughs, Prudential Center is just a short train ride away, and for now, That should be enough.

At the same time, it's hard not to notice that this isn't exactly Manhattan. Earlier this week, UFC officials reminded fighters that even if they're professional tough guys, Newark probably isn't a city they want to wander around alone at night. As if to cement that point, Jones made headlines on game day when he tracked down and arrested a man he had witnessed breaking into a parked car and stealing its GPS.

As if the young challenger didn't already have enough Superman vibes, he was fighting crime the day he was scheduled to fight for the title. That didn't bode well for Lua.

Ominous omens carried over into the battle itself. Rua appeared in the cage that night looking solidly focused and clearly in better shape than in his earlier UFC bouts, but Jones reminded us during the bout that there is a huge difference between the two. It only took a few seconds. It wasn't just pure youthful vigor, it extended to athleticism.

After a tentative touch-up in the center of the cage, Jones hits a jumping knee to the body of Rua, then backs away and appears to stretch his legs from one side of the cage to the other for a few seconds, making himself A kick that showed the range of. Within 30 seconds of the match, Jones mixed wild spinning attacks with powerful trip takedowns. Lua fell behind and began to look more and more lost.

After being peppered with elbows on the mat for most of the opening round, Rua stood up against the fence and hit a knee to the body, paying the price for a long left hook from Jones that wobbled him.

“He's just doing his thing with 'Shogun,'” UFC commentator Joe Rogan said after the one-sided first round.

Jon Jones hit “Shogun” Rua during their match at UFC 128.

Things got even worse in the second round, and Jones finally landed the spinning back elbow he was going for in the first round. Rua bled and slowed, swinging wide punches from the outside as he struggled to get close to his lanky challenger, and was tagged with his left as he kept his distance.

UFC commentator Mike Goldberg said this just before Jones took Rua down again and unleashed more abuse on the mat. That was more or less all there was to say about a title fight that increasingly resembled elder abuse.

After the third time, it finally came to an end. After lying on his back and being pounded with punches and elbows early in the round, a dazed and battered Rua staggered to his feet and retreated toward the fence as Jones closed in. The right side of his face was swollen. He took a deep, labored breath, raising his arms to cover his face.

Jones landed a left hook to the liver followed by a knee to the head. Rua fell in a heap, and when referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop him, he meekly hit the mat.

“It's all over!” boomed Goldberg. “Jon Jones is the youngest champion in UFC history!”

Jones slowly walked to the center of the cage, stretched his long arms out to the side, and turned on his back before sitting cross-legged in the cage, seemingly unsure of what to do next.

“And it wasn't even a struggle,” Logan said. “Unbelievable. Ladies and gentlemen, it's the future. He's the present, he's the future, and he might be the greatest talent we've ever seen in the UFC.”

But almost as soon as Jones finished shouting out his coach and savior in his post-fight interview, the UFC was ready to focus on the next bout. Rogan had just finished an interview with Rua, where he congratulated Jones on his win and simply explained, “He was better than me.” Suddenly, Evans appeared, looking dapper in a well-tailored suit, as the crowd booed him and the smile disappeared from Jones' mouth. face.

“He's taught me a lot, but it sucks that I have to do this,” Jones said when Logan told him Evans was the number one contender for the title. Told. “But this is my dream.”

After leaving the cage that night, Evans declared that he was “over Jackson's disease,” officially announcing his break with his team and teammates, which had been slowly simmering for several weeks.

But for all the drama surrounding this matchup, it would be another year and two more for Jones to successfully defend his title before they finally step into the cage together.

By then, Jones was no longer the dream kid. Instead, he was the overwhelming champion, the king of the light heavyweight class. While Evans and everyone else came to learn, the only person who could stop him was Jones himself.

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