Jon "Bones" Jones successfully defended his light heavyweight title against Daniel Cormier on January 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but shared that he is not done with his career goals yet.
Sports Illustrated reported that Jones discussed his latest move to Albuquerque, where he trained in the past several years. At the New Mexico camp, he worked with Greg Jackson and other great mixed martial arts coaches. After fighting and winning, he would go home to Ithaca, New York to spend time with family and friends. He said that he usually would not train until called again to another fight.
He said, "I'm sure lots of people have seen pictures of me with this big gut."
But things are about to change with his recent move with his family in the desert. Jones plans to immediately train and regularly spend time in the gym even without a scheduled fight card. He stated that he wants to focus on strength and conditioning and work towards becoming a jiu-jitsu black-belter. He also aims to learn new fighting techniques.
Jones said, "I'm so excited for this development, for this maturity, that I'm getting ready to start going through training in the offseason. Expect whoever I fight next to have their hands full."
Jones said at the press conference in the same Sports Illustrated report, "Working in the desert man. In order to hang out in the desert, you got to be tough. The animals that live in the desert are tough. The plants that survive in the desert are tough."
He finally said that his goal for 2015 is to become the greatest fighter of all time. He said, "And it's so feasible, it's so attainable. All I've got to do is stay focused and keep believing, the way I believe, and then keep working. I do believe 2015 will be the year I solidify it."
He added in a video on The Globe And Mail that he accepted his job that it will not be easy but he believes he has the cardio to last and that the goal was attainable as long as he does not get knocked out. He described his acceptance as the same as "accepting death."
After defeating Cormier in dominating fashion and upping his fight record to 21-1, Jones successfully defended his belt for the eight consecutive time. His win makes him the third most successful and fiercest fight in UFC history. Only two other legendary fighters are ahead of him in the list of successful consecutive title defenses, namely Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.
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