Following UFC 285, tune in to the Post-Fight Press Conference to hear the athletes take questions from the media. Subscribe to …
a bonjour Como Sava John congratulations you’ve uh you’ve had more than your share of Championship victories throughout your career but I guess this one might feel a little different a little special I guess can you put into words what uh this one means to you I’m just so grateful I’m very grateful um without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I would have never made it this far and I just want to acknowledge Him and everything that I am and everything that I do um I want to thank everybody out there who prayed for me I felt their energy and I’m very grateful uh this this fight means a lot it means a lot uh I’m humbled by it and uh it just goes to show that no no matter what happens in life if you just continue to strive put one foot in front of the other the sky’s the limit in this this world really can’t be your oyster um I’ve never felt more at peace I’ve never felt more happy last night at my at my uh my my fight dinner I almost cried I felt like I was living in a dream I looked around and I just saw so many leaders a lot of my friends these days are great business owners they’re great dads they’re great friends they’re men of substance I got really great men and women in my life my fiance my beautiful daughters my fiance supports the system of her friends um yeah I’m just really happy I’m really happy I feel like my whole world is a byproduct of the people that are in my life so I just I just want to thank every single one of uh of my supporters my fans without them I’d be I won’t be much I love you too can you talk about the feeling as you stepped in there tonight right I mean it’s been three years you’re up a weight class against a very big dude I mean was there a different nervous kind of energy than usual when he got in there I mean surreal gain has a great physique let’s let’s we all know that the guy looks like a bodybuilder um but you know my coaches reminded me John you know tielo Santos had a really awesome physique uh Vitor belfer had muscles in his earlobes and uh and so it was just like you know it’s it’s not a bodybuilding competition uh at the end of the day it’s it’s about it’s about heart it’s about grit it’s about wanting to be out there and um my buddy Brian McKenzie he said something to me right before I went out to the cage he said he said uh like neurologically a uh a cow and a lion they feel the same emotions when they’re fighting they’re both pumped up with adrenaline they said the only difference is the lion actually wants to be there and it was a perfect thing to say to me in a moment because I was nervous and he had he reminded me bro it’s normal and uh do you want to be here and at that moment I was like oh yeah I want to be here and I want more and um I just went out there with a very offensive mindset and uh we got it done I’m not sure if I answered your question or not I’m just talking to the wrestling skills would be there but uh at heavyweight you hadn’t Wrestled a heavyweight before so I guess how did it feel in there was it more difficult did you feel the strength as an issue when you went through the wrestling sequences I really do believe that I’m one of the strongest heavyweights uh in the heavyweight division and when I was a light heavyweight people would say all the time John is a lot stronger than what he appears to be um every almost every opponent that you know can say that and now that I’ve that I’ve been powerlifting and uh and living a martialized lifestyle I really truly believe that I’m the strongest heavyweight in the heavyweight division there’s guys that can that can do a lot of things probably more than me guys can squat more than me bench more than me but when it comes to just uh just total strength and muscular endurance and knowing how to pace yourself and knowing how to use endurance I believe in one of the most fit athletes in the game whether I look like it or not um yeah I’m excited I’m excited for the future I think some of my best performances are going to be coming within the next year or so like you said performances so that means more than one but I guess you made it clear that you said you want Stipe next uh uh a timeline is there anything I mean you are you have a date circled on the calendar yet or do you have an idea like what would make the most sense for you I got to talk to my coaching staff and see you know what they think but we took zero damage tonight and uh I’m getting right back to practice my buddy Murray screen has a fight coming up in the pfl um uh York and the Castro has a fight coming up in the pfl and uh I owe it to my team to to take the back seat and be the training partner and that’s exactly what we got to do we get right back to work and I believe in my next fight I’ll go into it with a different level of confidence and even higher level of confidence I believe that I’m going to look really great I’m going to have even higher endurance than I had today which is going to be hard to beat because I’m in really great condition and uh these guys in the back acting like nuts I can’t take you I can’t take you guys anywhere oh my goodness yeah then the next fight is gonna be awesome um I say it I say it respectfully to Stipe I would take time off from being a firefighter right now and I mean that with all due respect um my whole world is going to be focused on him this is the biggest opportunity in my life to beat the heavyweight goat and I’m going to give it everything I got absolutely everything I got stippers talking about the fact that he’s heavier than me right now you know his head his head is already in the wrong spot if he thinks weightlifting is going to beat me he’ll never be younger than he is right now he’ll never be faster and um I’m going to not only beat sleeping mioces I’m going to finish sleeping mioces before the championship rounds John over here uh you had alluded to in your post interview that you maybe or interview you felt off with your striking uh what was that just like nerves or ring rust or what well there’s always a slight filling out process um I actually was dealing with a slight injury before this fight and I didn’t really Spar many times I sparred the total of three times in this training camp and um so my my striking felt a little unfamiliar I had drilled a lot I did a lot of smart drilling but I didn’t Spar a lot and so um when I was out there it was almost like I was trying to remember how to do it uh fight on the feet for a moment but thank God that didn’t last too long I was able to get my hands on them and that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life I’ve been wrestling and grappling my whole life I feel like my jiu jitsu’s at an all-time high my wrestling confidence is at all-time high and um that just maybe my style moving forward you know getting away from all the kickboxing I want to save brain cells and uh fighting on the ground is just a lot more advantageous what’s going on with the tape on your toes they looked like they were cutting it off before you were getting in there yeah so uh I used the different tape I usually use a a certain brand of tape I’ll give them a shout out War tape and um I feel like it’s just a lot stickier I use the UFC’s tape tonight and as soon as my body started to sweat the tape was sliding all over the place and uh so I made like a almost like a little cast around my toe that link down to the middle of my foot so that the the tape wouldn’t slide off that my uh my toes and when I got out there the commission was just like you can’t tape your feet and I’m like dude I’ve always take my feet I’m not going to compete if I can’t take my toes I just won’t do it I want everyone to know that for the future so thank God we didn’t have a disaster out there tonight but um they they ended up changing the tone a little bit they allowed me to keep my toes tape and they had made me take the rest of the tape off the rest of my foot and it was it was a nice little distraction going into the fight one thing about my job is that it throws curveballs and we got to be able to think on the Fly we got to be able to improvise and so I just stayed calm I just admit you know as you said John is nothing much you stay cool keep your head in the game and uh we got the tape off the rest of my foot and I was able to go out there and proceed and to the mission John to your left um you know you’ve always been a popular fighter but it seems like this week you’ve gone to another level right the press conference I know you really enjoyed that the way the crowd reacted to you what was it like tonight you know you kind of got the biggest pop of all when you got in the cage the place went nuts and you know a lot of times you’ve been the bad guy right now you were the good guy and everybody was happy to see you what is it what did that feel like for you you know when I first got into the UFC I would talk about God a lot and wanting to be a good person and um and then people got to see that my life wasn’t perfect that I make mistakes and that I sinned and that I fall down and um I think for a long time people looked at me as just an incredibly fake individual and I think as of right now I think people can just see that I’m a human that I do love God but I’m a human and Christians aren’t perfect and I just think I’m more relatable to people than I’ve ever been and um you know despite how many times I mess up I do try to stand for good and something that’s bigger than me and um I just think there’s a there’s a relatability that I have with people or either you absolutely hate me or you’re just learning to understand the man that I am and I think I just think it’s going over well for me when did you do you adopt that attitude right I mean when how and when did it change you know I came into the game Young and uh I think I was like 21 20 years old when I when I joined the UFC 19 something and I’m 35 years old now I just got off of a big hiatus I took three years off I got to focus on my family I got to focus on development as a man I got to uh I got to start a care project or giving back to the City of Albuquerque I got to have a dog that was my best friend you know what I mean just just little stuff that had nothing to do with being Jon Bones Jones and it just helped me put life in perspective it just just helped me realize what an opportunity I have and I’ve had a lot of reflection time I’ve got to see the belt passed around from Champion the champion and all these guys from different countries become the face of the sport and it’s been awesome to witness and um just today I just have my head screwed on a little bit more straight than it’s ever been and uh just more self-aware and I think I think people are starting to notice that last question for me you know uh Dana was up here before talking about you being the goat and unquestionably the Goat anymore and you think of most sports you know most people think Michael Jordan but there’s some people think LeBron otherwise NFL some people think Tom Brady’s the greatest quarterback other people were arguing last week it was Joe Montana but it seems in MMA you have separated yourself to such a degree that there isn’t an argument anymore and I wonder what that rare error up there where you’re all by yourself among all these great fighters who have competed what does that feel like it feels great it feels great I’ve been familiar with high praises for a while now and I’m very aware that you know Pride becomes before the fall so it’s going to be different being the champ again and everyone’s calling you the baddest man on the planet but uh you know my surroundings my circle they’ll keep me humble at the end of the day when I get back to Albuquerque I’m just another guy at my team and when I’m at home with my fiance and my girls with my kids I’m just another guy I’m just dad you know what I mean so uh so uh I know that grounding myself is going to be more important than ever not getting too big for my bridges continuing to do community work continue to rub elbows with everybody um not getting high in myself that that’s going to be the key to my success is just remaining humble John one more in the front uh right here I don’t know if you saw but Francis tweeted uh good job Johnny Boy sincerely the heavyweight King do you have response to Francine ganu referring himself Francis is a big old [Music] hey John John question over here John TJ Legacy ESPN Gainesville in your time of reflection uh and perspective over the past three years I love that quote I love it all that muscle with a big ass excuse me I’m so sorry do you do you have the longest win streak in UFC history do you ever think about one day it being over I know Tom Brady called you to go he just recently hung it up do you ever think about your mortality in the sport um ask that again I’m sorry do you ever end during your time of reflection do you ever think of how long you could keep this going this this domination of in UFC do you ever think of your MMA mortality you know I just try to take it one fight at a time one year at a time I just had to take a one one you know just one one situation at a time um you know I do fight I do fight to to try to live forever in some sense and um you know it’s an honor that years from now people talk about me in barber shops about who was one of the greatest hand-to-hand combatants of all time and and uh I’m honored I’m honored that I’d be considered I’m humbled by it and um I just want more challenges that’s really what it’s about for me just just more challenges John I saw you say that you plan on donating your fifty thousand dollar bonus to some New Mexico Charities can you explain a little bit more about what causes you want to work with the The Care Project is uh it’s something that that I created with a group of friends when the pandemic started um we started giving back to our community originally we went out bearing arms and we were literally willing to fight for our city and um and um we switched it from being you know protectors to just guys who gave back and uh it’s one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever been a part of just just giving back to others and uh I gotta officially become a a 501c3 so that I can do even more but yeah there’s 50 000 will go I’m not sure what we’re gonna do with it we do things with the homeless we we provide gifts for Christmas we do a lot of cool things and uh it’s just going to go towards that it it’s a great bonus and I’m excited to do something good with it money I you did not fall victim to the Drake curse tonight about five hundred thousand dollars on you and you managed to come through for him next question what’s up congratulations champ hey how are you Ellie set back I’m reporting reporting uh yes yes I’m just grateful I’m just super grateful I’m grateful I’m humbled by it uh it was a prediction that that I had and uh and I was able to go out there and pull it off it just makes me believe in my grappling and my physical strength and my wrestling even more so and I’ll I’ll work on that strength and make it even stronger for the next fight and tell me about javonta Davis visiting uh it was great to have tank Davis come out he was a very humble young man very humble very soft-spoken and uh you know his Persona on Instagram he’s just Larger than Life character you know but in person him and his team were very respectful men uh the same like quality guys and I wish him all the best uh moving forward in life John Dutch you’re right question over here don’t judge her right uh Dana was in here I didn’t realize that you’re having after party he was a a bit worried do you think he has a reason to be worried or not absolutely not he has no reason to be worried I Diana knows we all make mistakes and um and uh I am not the man uh I won’t even say that I’m excited to go out I’m excited to meet my fans I’m excited to shake their hands to look them in the eyes to give them hugs I know the tickets were more expensive than they normally are and a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to see me in person and I want to give as much good energy as I can so um my after party is not about drinking or anything like that it’s about uh giving back to my fans it’s the same reason why I had a meet and greet earlier in the week I I just I want to give back to my fans so everyone over at hakkasan waiting for me I hope you guys have the best memories tonight and the best experience hey John right back here straight in the back John I mean when you talk about a victory like this come back the layoff win a second title you know title second weight class was there ever any thought of just you know this may be the night you could just walk away on top can you did that ever cross your mind to say hey it may not even get better than this it’s such a big victory it is a big victory but um I feel like you’re not the champ unless you defeat you defend that belt and uh I got at least one more Emmy and that’s what I’m gonna give the fans when you started the fight the low blow happens almost immediately did that throw off any Focus or Rhythm obviously right there at that first opening seconds of the fight no no you know to be honest with you it didn’t even hurt that bad I felt the tingling now don’t get me wrong but uh it wasn’t enough to actually stop me I didn’t want a strike like that to go unnoticed so I thought I’d take a time out let the ref know that that I was fouled and uh and and we could continue if you notice I didn’t take a very long time out but I didn’t want things like that dirty moves to be unnoticed I’ve noticed in a lot of surreal gains fights you know if you look at that tattoo Japan he one of the shots that actually put him down was a strike to the back of the head uh he hits people in the back of the head quite a bit and I didn’t want any type of dirty play happening on such a big night guys just for for the French fans for the French funds the the it was a big expectation so now you are just sorry for them no I’m not sorry I’m not sorry to the French fans at all uh this is combat This Is War and there’s no mercy guys Mercy have a great night take care