Got 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, goddammit, Jon Jones. Almost finished. You had all this time.
Almost finished. You gotta finish that fucking thing. That's an athlete.
That's someone who works out a lot. There's like, there's imperatives, right? You gotta get that food in there.
Nutrition is key. It is key, but that's shit. What are you eating? What is that?
A kind bar thing. That's cool. bullshit.
Oh, it is, but... Is that a good one? Is that one with the five grams of sugar or one of them caramel fake candy bar type jammies? Yeah, five grams of sugar. Definitely.
A little closer to that. John Jones, how you doing, brother? I'm on the road, you know? I understand.
I gotta 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 is chewing people get furious There's something about being in someone's ear like my daughter was in my ear last night 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. I've heard that. 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'm obviously 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 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 fiance, this boy.
That's deep. And yeah, that was my whole theory. I was just like, when I'm mature enough and we're married, God feels like we're in this good place. He's going to give us a boy. And then I'm thinking, but if we have another girl, that trial and error is so expensive.
That's 18 more years of raising another girl. Because 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. So I'm like, I don't want to risk. I don't want to risk.
But you think about it in terms of a... financial risk i mean i can afford to have a thousand kids you know that's what i'm saying like what are you doing people but that's something that like gets ingrained in your head people always say that oh the cost of raising kids 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 it's all trial and error so i'm thinking let's just put a little science in there and i feel like i feel like god gives people the intelligence to come up with uh uh these ideas and these different you know surgeries or whatever to be able to you know I'm saying like mm-hmm God gives only the idea to be able to do this 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 like some sort of DNA chromosomal jazz I don't know what they're doing I don't know what the process is says but yeah well people i mean wouldn't you say personally that like people who are religious almost all of them sort of pick and choose what they decide to agree with and not agree with i mean you're a religious person but you have a tattoo right you have a religious tattoo which is double ironic because it says in the bible not to get tattooed not to mess with the temple right but then you gotta 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 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 have I not learned enough lessons?
Why have I not balanced myself out enough? I feel like I'm learning lessons every year, 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.
Mmm, but you don't feel like you're over those yet. No, I'm middle of it. You're in the struggle um, yeah, definitely kind of still in the struggle of some things you know, but But I've definitely got over a lot of things that that I used to struggle with it, which I'm excited about But you know life is as a it's a work in progress Well, you were telling me before the show that you like you don't do Instagram anymore.
You're not doing anything You just sort of lay in 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 media guys and then there's 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. But yeah, outside of 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, just not just through July, but for the last couple of years. You've been involved in a lot of crazy shit, you know? Are you...
disappointed in yourself with a lot of this stuff? I am. I totally am. I totally am, yeah.
What does it feel like? Give me the thought. We can go through all of them, but give me the thought. 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, Joe. 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, I was in a bad place. It was a it was a messed up situation man 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, 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, majority of my career, drinking. Me too. Shit, maybe it's happening to me. Drinking, you know, every weekend pretty much, you know, to the point of blacking out.
Blacking out? Yeah, just being hammered, you know, and just being a total. party boy but still still training my butt off you know working really hard believing really hard had big goals 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 that that morning I got in a car accident man I just It was just, it was a huge reality check. And it was, you know, I think in some people's mind, they envision me, you know, hitting this car and running up and seeing that it was a pregnant lady and then taking off running.
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're supposed to yield for the right-of-way, right, to turn left. And a 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 bull was. the head 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 go back to the car and i i like searched the 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 going to 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 much time were we talking about? Literally, from the time that I hit, I was over a fence, probably. Eight seconds later, it was literally a super reactionary, like just, I just felt, I hadn't been home yet, I stayed at a friend's house, 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, and I just knew I was... I know I smelled like alcohol, and I just felt like if the police came, it would be a bad situation for me. And 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 to leave her.
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 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. that's no better right um the whole situation was just a shitty situation i was in a 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 just like worst case scenario that is the worst case scenario pregnant woman oh yeah it makes me like a monster yeah it makes me like a monster when you found out i was a pregnant woman what was what was going through your mind i thought man i am 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 that's a whole different level of being in trouble God forbid if she was gonna have a miscarriage You know I would imagine that that would be a 1000% 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 Went from that I was going from that to like literally being in jail as 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? I mean, 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... My respect for women is, I have tremendous respect for women.
And I try to, like, obviously, being a father, I try 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, you just hurt a pregnant woman. Like, it doesn't really get worse than that. But, yeah, I had no clue.
I had no clue that it was even a woman that I hit. And I felt terrible. And what was the... 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 you 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 they were just thinking man like Did anybody step in and say hey man you gotta get your shit together? Oh, 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? What do you mean?
Like besides this one instance? What other things have people come to you and say hey John you got to get your shit together? Well kind of all of it everything that's happened over the last you know two years or not Makes people feel like they can tell me that I need to get my shit together. I recently I recently went outside to my garage 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 and he's like hey man like I'm waiting to see you fight again he'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.
Everybody feels like they have the right to tell me to get my shit together. And at the end of the day, 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 and 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. 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.
Right. The only thing that can make you feel better is to be pure or to be clean. 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, you know? 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, 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, I've been working on my personal life tremendously, and as of right now, I feel amazing. I feel better now today than I did when I was beating everybody's ass. sponsored by the world and like I literally feel better today because 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 has brought a a lot of peace to me. Not worried about what people are saying. Not even worried about what's going on in the UFC. Like who has the belt or you know just being Jonathan Jones and having my group of friends across the country who genuinely love me focusing on my kids every day. Taking my girls to cheerleading practice.
Picking them up from school. Drop them off at school. Basic stuff, like me and my fiance.
Just living life. Being on top of stuff. Yeah, being on top of stuff. I'm in no debts. Everything's caught up.
Everything's spot on. Things I wanted to get fixed around the house, that paint chip is painted now. Everything's just going.
Everything's so put together right now in my life. Outside of sports. And obviously having the clear mind.
Something I can do. something that I haven't had in a long time. You know, I just feel really good right now. So as far as...
And then also being in a position where I don't really need to fight again either. You know what I mean? Financially, you mean?
Financially. But don't you though don't you though in your mind? Oh, yeah, I have to fight because I have to fight because the story can't end like this Yeah, well, it's like 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 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 ever UFC champion. Not just that. There's also a responsibility that comes with potential.
It's not just what you've done and it's what you could have done. You fought Alexander Gustafson. Be honest about that.
How much did you train for that fight? I trained. I trained for the fight, but... 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. 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, I can look myself in the mirror and say that, well, I lost because I got hammered the week before the fight. 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. My...
my Oven St. Preux fight was the first fight that I did not do that. It was my worst performance. See, I don't think it was your worst performance.
I think you were very unjustly criticized for that fight because I think Oven 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 Oven St. Preux is a really tough guy, and it was a tough fight, and you hadn't fought in a long time. 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 like skill wise skill wise like I I don't um 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 punch their second favorite punch their favorite combinations, their setups to their takedowns, when they clinch, what side of their head is 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 head inside, head outside. What am I going to do about that? I figure out everything, why they shoot, what area. area of the cage they like to shoot everything um and uh with Ovin St. Preux he he he he doesn't know what he's going to do he's he's so um unorthodox unorthodox um you know and he gets these random knockouts from these weird angles and he just winks up and he almost closes his eyes and next thing you know he's knocked somebody out you know so the scary thing about him was uh he's so unpredictable uh and so and I had a lot on the line um so I just said you know what this guy is uh He's 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. Why I was like that, why I was content with coasting. Well, that was a fight where you, that had the most pressure on you. And then any fight you've had before, as far as like 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 did all the things I had to do to get back to get back to the stage.
You know, I handled all my probate. probation obligations and and um and i i stayed healthy i started powerlifting 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 powerlifting might have a bit of an effect on on your performance yeah he thought that you were doing too much of that yeah well i was doing too much of it so um i literally i started powerlifting lifted um and i took off seven months of martial arts training i didn't show up to jackson's for seven months and i i showed up to this place called zs strength systems um powerlifting gym um four days a week just getting jacked getting jacked i became i became obsessed with lifting heavy weight and i literally did no martial arts training and then about four months out from uh 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 these guys, were they involved in martial arts at all? These 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. They, um... 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 the 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, 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 my timing was off, my creativity was off, the go-to moves that I used to do weren't quite there. 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. So I was really nervous going into it. I knew that I was ready to beat DC because I was so well rehearsed and like the drills and everything were so well rehearsed to beat DC but as far as going into the fight fight with Ovin St. Preux, I just felt like my creativity was kind of gone, 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 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. and said it was in the back of the head, which it wasn't.
It was on the neck. I was throwing big shots on ovance 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? of bulk? I think it was, 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 my hips into my legs. It's a point of this 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 using my past experience and, you know, to measure what I'm doing as we speak.
So right now I'm 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.
And not until Anthony Johnson and DC fought that first time that I joined the team. the gym and get my get myself together why was that just watching that fight competing for your belt yeah just seeing them compete for the belt I thought to myself man I am wasting um I'm wasting talent I'm wasting everything like you know I believe I can beat both of these guys and they're up there and uh on tv where I should be and I'm sitting here at home um kind of you know living in this depression and so um literally the next day I called uh the I walked down there stoned right and and just like hey I need to get my life together I need something I need something to be excited about something to to inspire me motivate me get me up get me out of the house and and I just completely turned everything around from that day for 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 dead lifting 600 pounds you know there was 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 I just thought I was gonna 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.
Yeah, it's hooked. I've 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, keep it going. heavier numbers you know yeah it was yeah i fell in love 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 everybody high fives chalks flying in the air it's the best dude i'm telling you i 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 to be in the perfect form. So 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 strong.
In a grappling sense. Yeah, you're strong in 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 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.
Okay. working on my versatility and just my abilities. 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? No.
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. One. 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 was 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 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. Alright, constantly and my plan is to get back in I still 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 About because that sounds crazy right? I mean 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 and things and just sort of just slowly there's always my house studying their opponents Yeah, that's a that is 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 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.
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've got a family.
But you need to get back down here and help these guys. They have a fight coming up. 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.
to for sure yeah I used to have a lot of wild friends and when did you stop hanging out with these people for the car accident um or like yesterday no after the car accident when I when I decided that I was gonna be completely sober I I let loose a lot of friends and it was crazy because um I used to my phone used to blow up on Friday nights because everybody knew that John was gonna 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. Right. 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. Um, Um, and so when you're like that, you know, Friday nights come around eight o'clock. Everybody's like, yo, where are you going to be tonight? You know, you know, if I'm out, there's going to be more people around. You're going to 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? As. And so now I've been sober for almost 16 months. 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 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 it helped. It helped a lot. 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 and 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 like a little bit too chilled out. So, like, in order to, like, keep up with a bunch of drunk people who are talking.
You drink Red Bull. I drink a Red Bull. Yeah. 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.
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. Is that like...
Stopping that, was that as easy as stopping drinking? Or what's more difficult? It was... 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 that was just like people are boring You said it Joe. They don't talk about cool shit. They don't like to stare up at space They don't want to go to the mountains and meditate in well fucking cross-legged position Yeah, I had to find people who are just straight. You know we're always just straight and And I just had to find different activities, too Right and you know because when you're hanging out 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 fitness just you know fitness and things like that so now you know fitness is like my drug i really love uh being strong and being healthy um and like i do mountain biking and jujitsu i do a lot of jujitsu these days and and so that's kind of like that's you know what i live for outside of family of course well 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 dealing with and you've decided to not engage in them anymore.
Do you write things down? Do you write goals down 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. for you I do like like how so um just little things that help me be patient and and to to be loving and to appreciate It's just how I had to look through my phone to kind of... I just write down a lot of reminders of what I stand for, you know, and how I view things.
Yeah, 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 I... I... 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 it.
the crowd and to have fun and to relax yeah i always thought i needed alcohol and um 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 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. Come on, we're just going to get a little bit. Just a little bit.
Just a little shot. 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'm... 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 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 It's like something was causing you to not think straight and it was your actions and what you chose to take into your body And then I said all right. I'm done with that right, but you feel like you could get back to that I feel I feel like 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, you know, you remember the time you did this and we were at that? You know, 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 is like...
So I've just... I've had a lot of times to 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 it. You feel like you have an unhealthy relationship or had an unhealthy relationship with marijuana? I was smoking way too much pot. I was smoking way too much pot.
Literally breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in between workouts, to study film, to do everything. I was just... And it... For me, there's some functional smokers who can wake up and they have eight things they're going to do that day. And they do all eight things.
Like me, I would wake up and I had eight things I needed to do that day. And I'd be like, oh, I've got this. three of them done today.
Like, I'm good with that. Like, I just, 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, 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. Yeah. 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 Like some escape. You needed an escape valve. And that's what you'd found through the drinking. That's what you'd found through the pot.
You'd found these ways where you could not be John Jones for a while. 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 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.
Yeah, absolutely. It definitely made you feel, for those moments... Take your hands away from me so I can hear you.
I'm sorry. It's alright. So you're just blocking the microphone. It's gonna sound weird.
It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.
It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.
It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.
It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.
It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.
It's alright. Normal like normal. Yeah for sure especially the bar thing especially the bar thing like 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 and but for those moment I felt like I was like I think I was 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 hands. hanging out with other celebrities all my friends are like um just normal average joe guys and 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 right you quickly remind it 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 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 you 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 like i like i really have a lot of pride in just doing what like just normal shit like going to places that most people even fighters in albuquerque you don't don't go just being amongst the people and and i think a big part of me long to just kind of just be not famous sometimes now my question the reason why i asked 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 you're 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 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.
I realized... what I had and who I am and what I was. And, um, and, um, I just feel above what you used to be. Yeah. I feel above the way I used to like.
Let so much consume me like even right now like I Don't know it's just so hard to explain. I just I don't feel like I'm in the same I don't feel like I look at things the same. 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? Right. When you said that fucked up thing when you were blacked out? That's you, bro. And you're like, I don't even remember that.
I was blacked out. Right. 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-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 it's far far from throwing it all away i sometimes i get people write me and say dude uh say things like oh you ruined a great career or like you uh like people have this mindset that it's all over yeah i saw a lot of people saying that people that i i 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. Do you know Bernard Hopkins'story?
No. Bernard Hopkins, one of the greatest boxers of all time for sure, and 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 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 a man. 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 will go down in history as one of the all-time greats.
Guaranteed shoe-in Hall of Famer. 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 he used that as fuel and he knew that like there's no fucking way. I'm gonna 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. Yeah. 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. I mean, boy, I mean, if you wanted to think that someone's looking out 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. But 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 suspension. When is your suspension, George? About eight months, yeah.
Eight months away from a suspension being released. And, I mean, this is all a great thing. How old are you now? You're 30?
I'll be 29 still when I come back. It's your fucking athletic prime. Yeah. That's at your best. Really, your prime is like 32. That's why I put the...
I put the the Jordan meme up the Jordan crying face as my Twitter picture have you seen that I put that up is it with you with the belt on the Jordan face 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.
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 have let their parents down, let their families down, let their friends down, let themselves down. And because I've made so many mistakes on such a public, you know, such a big scale and so public, I feel like all the great things that I do from here on out are going to be... to be that much greater because of where I came from 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 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? Yeah, I don't. You 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... 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 thing.
I've literally been there and done that already. I feel like, I just feel like ultimately I've already gotten so much out of the sport and what I need to do is to truly get something. What I really need is to know that I'm changing lives. Like that motivates me more.
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, what I can be, and what I'm going to do for someone else one day. And it's also laughing at people who actually think that I'm out, down and out. People who actually think that my story is over. I'm just laughing at it all because 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 have anything I've done I 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 because people know no no I don't I don't because when I ask people you know it's like you No, I don't. There's people who wants to believe that I'm this terrible, you know, just 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 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.
When they see the worst case scenario, I mean, the way it was played out, a pregnant woman in a... car you and you get a car accident and you took off yeah yeah i mean it is like for the haters it's like a dream come true yeah it is but i can man i've one thing i've learned about myself is that i can't be held down i don't i'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 and dig myself out of uh situations and like and ultimately rise above situation that's beautiful as long as you don't count on it right oh well i'm at a position now where i'm sick of getting in my own way and like like ufc 200 let's talk about that i literally what happened i 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 so let's just talk about what happened you tested positive for some estrogen inhibitors yeah estrogen blockers that a lot of people associate with people who take steroids they want to restart their system or if you want a testosterone boost you take Clomid or Clomiphene these are These are standard drugs in the steroid users world. Yeah, this is all new for me. 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. Twist at the end of a punch. You know what I mean? It's a good time, you know? It's a good time.
That'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, well, 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. I mean, everyone knows for a fact that 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. 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 guy's like, you ever do Cialis Viagras and all that stuff? And I'm like, yeah. 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 I thought everything was fine and dandy. I had no clue. What, you know, that I was now having something else in me that was illegal. I took the Seattle spill on June the 14th, June 16th. You saw that I 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, you know, right before UFC 200. my manager, Malky, calls me over to his hotel room and 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, 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 does 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'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 open that much I was like what the fuck so you don't jump out I'm like hotel in Vegas. Where was it? Vegas fucking I'm freaking I'm breathing.
They don't want gamblers leaping through the second. I'm breathing through the thing calm myself down and I 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 have 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, so much of the right things to be back in a good position. And right now, you know, people.
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 castation rhino dick pill?
I, I, um What do you know about the rhinos? My friend Ryan, 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 Um, no, um, that's funny He called it Yeah, well, he was on Um Um 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, um... I came back to the game and there'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'd 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 can drug 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. So, um...
The only difference was I had taken like 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 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 help you? I don't know. You'd have to look into that.
But I think it's similar in a lot of ways to nitric oxide supplements. Like a pre-workout? Mm-hmm.
It gets 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 mean, I think it actually can possibly potentially help endurance.
Mm-hmm. Wow. Yeah, 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 it wasn't your intention.
It was not my intention. I had no clue that I needed to report this to USADA because I thought, you know, literally I was reporting everything else. What supplements, what pre-workout, what, you know, my amino acids, my protein powder.
Like USADA had all my stuff. So what happens once you find out? How did you narrow it down to this pill? I literally, I went through my supplements and I, um.
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 supplements, protein powder, fish oil. shoyu um you know liver cleanse it like or whatever um just just grape seed extract that kind of stuff yeah just very you know multi-vitamins for men basic very basic stuff okay and um and And then Gat Nutrition was like, 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 to the tits. 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, no.
I mean, but. people saw you, you got gigantic from the powerlifting. I got huge, ironically.
Completely natural. I have great pride in being a natural athlete. But so they got all the GAT stuff tested and clear, right? Everything was clear.
Does GAT have other things that you saw 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.
Then 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 in their ingredients they listed about five products in their ingredients and they actually there was actually like seven products uh two that weren't listed in the ingredients the two estrogen blockers were never in their ingredients so um it was a tainted pill you understand what i'm saying Yes. So. So the USADA was able to tell, OK, this was totally inattention. There's no way in no way in hell.
John would take these estrogen blockers. First of all, there was very small traces. So it wasn't like I was loaded up with estrogen blockers. Right. And why the fuck would they put estrogen blockers in a dick pill?
In a dick pill. We believe that the factory that created these these dick pills. were maybe manufacturing these pills in a dirty laboratory or whatever. So it was 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 we tested several different packages.
So it was obvious that these pills were probably getting made in the same machine, and there were just traces. Right. Literally, we found a bunch of-Which is enough to show up in your system when you get drug tested.
Literally, we found some of these dick pills that had none, no estrogen blockers. And you're like, damn, why did I get that one? Yeah, exactly. 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 it was obvious that was complete accident, right?
And even 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 of the contaminant contaminated.
Where does that leave you? How much time did they suspend you for? I got suspended for, for a year back from 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 there's 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 I'm there's something about Suspending someone for something like that. It seems ridiculous.
Yeah Well, in my situation, they they the even your side is lawyer. He showed he showed a little bit of remorse. I could feel that he felt bad about what was happening to me because I think he could really even the arbitrators, they could tell what had actually happened.
Right. But their problem was this. John 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 were to 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 because they said it they have a zero tolerance policy it was just like I was the first fighter to ever take them to into arbitration and And they were more upset that I didn't let them know that I took the pill than what actually happened.
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 know what I'm saying?
I still would have ran into the same situation. I think it's great to protect people from people. of 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. Yeah.
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, um, 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 just, I'm always, 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 who flew out to UFC 200 and things like that.
that but as far as the whole situation i'm just glad that that my my name will 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 that was that would have really, 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 returned it, 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 the 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. 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 UNC fighter. So yeah, that's my whole thing. I'm like, even if I would have told you guys I took it, you guys would have read the label and gave me the okay. Right?
Because we're allowed to have what's in Viagra and Cialis in us. Those are actually allowed to... But because mine 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 tend not to just question things. I'm really young, and, you know, I believe that my best years and 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. And I'm just saying, you know, maybe this is God's plan for me. Maybe I. I need this time away from 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 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 4th 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 Mousasi. 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 Rumble Johnson. It's a high risk low 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 no fight a contender. No one is no one's spoken to me about 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 but 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's been sold.
Actually, not a week before. Fight week of UFC 200, yes. Anyways. 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.
with him. He was always the calm, cool, collected one, the one that could actually leave emotion behind and really have a good conversation with. 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? Hmm. Do you see anything that stands out glaringly? Like here's 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 taking 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, the 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 pee. Oh, okay, go ahead. Go ahead and pee. I was drinking this water and coffee.
One second, guys. 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 really get it out there. I fucking hate weight cutting. I do. I had a conversation with... Ari Emanuel about it.
And I'm going to have a conversation soon with Novitski about it. I just think 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 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 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 um and they attribute that also to weight cutting and dehydration hey so yeah my boss has said that i'm talking way too much 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 um i don't really cut a lot of weight at all i um i okay 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 McGrath Gregor weighing at 145 and he looks like death. Right. You know, when I see those, 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. Like, he couldn't walk. He didn't have the strength to pick his feet up and walk.
He was, like, just shuffling towards it and he still didn't make the weight. Yeah, it's shitty. 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. 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're in the heavyweight division?
If I was a little bigger, then I would go to heavyweight. But, you know, a part of our job is to 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, 250. Right. You know what I mean? So, you know, you just.
Do you think there's enough weight classes? No, I would like there to be at least another weight class when it comes to those big boys. You know what I mean? I would love it if there was 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 225 founder any day. You know, face a guy who's showing up fight night at, you know, 240 or whatever.
You know, I spar against heavyweights pretty much every, you know, I've been doing it my whole career anyway. So it'd 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. 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, um... 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 no concussions whatsoever. And then I've been... 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. 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. 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 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 they get punched, and they start giggling. Or are 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, I have a great chin. I've never been rocked or wobbled, and I want to keep it that way. I'm going to preserve myself because the skills will come.
But that brain, once it's jello, it's jello forever. 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 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 this 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. No, 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 amateur guys. Blue belt in jiu-jitsu?
You can't be a guy off the street who doesn't know shit. Who doesn't know shit. But outside of that, If you have a general idea of martial arts, 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.
So if 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 for me.
I have 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 gets to train with with me and and the rest of us because I can only imagine wanting to you know you get to play ball with LeBron James and you you just got out of college. or you never 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 know, you want to make a name for yourself. So with me. You could dunk on LeBron James and everybody's like, oh, I can't believe you did that.
But so. 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.
And if I see you for the first time, you are obviously about 260, 205, whatever, 220. And 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... Spar him today like all right like anything weird that's going on with your eye contact with me Then I'm just not gonna mess with you. I'll say hi to you and Welcome to Jackson's and we'll just say hey man. Do you want to spar?
I'm like hey I Just I don't have any room for for people trying to prove anything with me. There's a lot of that there isn't there? Yeah, it happens So me 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 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 their first day here.
And I'm just like, dude, earn, like, how about you 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 and being a fan. People want those fucking pictures.
Yeah, it's like, dude. 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 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 I do see the benefits of having so many new people coming in.
I mean, everyone has something to teach, and you can learn from anybody from any country if you have an open mind enough. A lot of the guys come in with a great attitude, and they're just really grateful. to be there and they go with a lot of the top dogs and we can kind of beat them up a little bit 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 come up with a great way. way to protect myself from those type of people. But you've run into those?
Most people, 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. Even when we're drilling, my defense is always on. I don't give someone the opportunity to take a swing or take a punch. I've had one guy hit me with a monstrous overhand right while we were drilling that was intentionally to knock me out.
And instead of retaliating, I just said, uh... I said, man, you okay? And he's like, yeah, I'm all right.
I'm sorry. I just, I 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.
That's a very smart way to handle it. I just stay away from you. Yeah. But you do find those disturbed people that get involved. in fighting and they do want to take a chance at a guy like Jon Jones just take a swing at you what if I connect and knock him out I knocked out Jon Jones.
Right. I go, like, the few times that it has happened to, 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 I realize 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? Right around 2000, around 2010. In 2011, I went through this huge spiritual thing where I became obsessed with the power of the mind.
And 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...
I just took myself to this different mental level where I took myself on being an average Joe kind of you probably hate every show Goofy name it's good. 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 goal and be the the greatest and never lose into 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 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 that just subconsciously I know who I am, 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 separate yourself from it and get a balanced and, as much as you can, objective perspective. 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. Right. 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'm like, 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? Like, 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 is my actual life this isn't my 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 um so that's my form of meditation I step away from terrible situations and looking 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 completely emerged in the moment and thinking that oh I can't get out of like you know You know, so. Now, I said earlier that UFC 205 was in December. I know it's November.
That's when I fucked up. 205. Oh, 205. Yeah. Oh, 205. Yeah, but what I'm thinking of in December, when is your grappling match with Dan Henderson? December 11th. That's December.
Okay, that's what I'm fucked up on. What is this? Is this EBI rules? So this is submission.
This is Chael Sonnen's event? I think he's the president of it or something like that. 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 like a small grappling event. I was at an autograph signing. I saw that. Yeah, some guy was like...
hey you ever roll like competitively and I was like no actually I haven't since 2009 or something like I did one jujitsu 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 like uh you know i really don't do that type of stuff i you know i i would have to go home i don't have any clothes or anything and he's like oh we we're selling geese over here and rash guards and i'm like i was like i don't think i'm gonna roll man like i you know and so he's like uh 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, 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?
So I was just like, 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. You know, 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 um i think some these people uh from submission underground they saw those videos and they're they're starting this new um promotion um where they're actually paying fighters pretty well like they're taking care of the athletes, you know? 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.
Um, so here it is. Oh, okay. It's flow grappling.com. F L O grappling.com Sunday, December 11th at two 30. Um, and I think this is EBI rules. If this is the Chael Sundin thing.
So see if that, if you could 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, well you start off with 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, the arms trapped, and ready, go.
So the guy on the bottom is trying to escape, you're trying to hold him down. Or you can start off with 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 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.
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. You know 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 beat me, even in a grappling match. That's quite the way to end your career. Yeah.
I don't know how hard he's training, but I'm putting a little effort into it for sure. Yeah, well, you told me before you're just getting really in love with jiu-jitsu now. I do.
I do love jiu-jitsu. Yeah, my professor, he's a great coach, man. They call him Tusa.
I think it's Portuguese for, like, buck tooth or something like that. But his real name is Roberto Alucard. He's several time world champion in Jiu Jitsu. I think he's beat Vinny Magalhães quite a few times and he's won all these... That's huge.
Yeah, all these world champion. I think he's five time world champion. Wow.
And he literally... He's right there with me every practice. I've never done Gi training, but he doesn't settle.
I'm technically a white belt, but every position he's like, you've got to do this right, put your hand here. 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 you you should guy like you you have a big jump yeah people are gonna hate me bro i'm gonna i'm gonna my style is gonna be like uh maya i'm just gonna take people down and freaking ride your ass out and freaking submit you like don't expect any more stand-up striking from me really i'm joking joe yeah you can't i'm telling who knows what you're gonna do right no i don't 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 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.