Reigning UFC heavyweight king Jon Jones has a storied career inside the promotion’s famous Octagon. From becoming the UFC’s youngest champion ever to defeating several legendary mixed martial artists, many view “Bones” as the greatest fighter of all time.
And after a three-year hiatus, Jones became a two-division champion by winning the title north of light heavyweight, the weight class he had called home since his professional debut in 2008.
Jones vacated his 205-pound belt the summer after defeating Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 in February 2020. The razor-thin majority decision marked the beginning of Bones’ lengthy absence from active competition. However, when he left the light heavyweight throne, Jones announced he would finally make the move to heavyweight — a divisional change fans and analysts had anticipated for years.
When did Jon Jones become the heavyweight champion?
He eventually returned to the cage to battle No. 1-ranked contender Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight crown. Francis Ngannou had left the promotion and his belt behind to pursue boxing and a less-restrictive contract with an MMA promotion.
Jones and Gane squared up at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the UFC 285 headliner on March 4, 2023. And the fight was waved off within the first round.
Bones used his superior wrestling and grappling to control the French kickboxing technician, and Jones forced “Bon Gamin” to tap at the 2:04 mark with a guillotine choke. With the win, Jones joined the handful of fighters who etched their names in the history books as two-division UFC champions.
Jones was scheduled to make his first title defense on Nov. 11 opposite Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 in New York City. However, the champion was forced out of the GOAT vs. GOAT affair after tearing a pectoral tendon while training in late October.
His division is now set to crown an interim champion while he recovers from surgery. Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall will duel in the night’s co-main event.
Jon Jones won his first UFC title in 2011
Although his title-winning effort at UFC 285 was his first win as a heavyweight, it wasn’t Jones’ first experience hoisting gold. Jones became the light heavyweight champion as a 23-year-old with a professional MMA record of 13-1. He took the title from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128 in 2011.
What followed was Bones’ record-breaking title defense run that saw him beating the likes of Daniel Cormier, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Chael Sonnen, and Vitor Belfort from 2011 to early 2015.
But, because of legal and personal troubles outside of the Octagon, Jones’ fighting career took a backseat. He was stripped of his belt for violating the UFC’s code of conduct in 2015. Later, he was stripped of the interim title in 2016 after testing positive for banned substances.
And when he won back the undisputed championship in 2017 by knocking out Cormier, the result was overturned to a no-contest after Jones tested positive for turinabol, an anabolic steroid.
He eventually returned to his post as the king of the light heavyweights in 2018 by besting Alexander Gustafsson via third-round KO for the vacant belt at UFC 232. He then notched three title defenses before dropping the belt and moving to heavyweight.
All in all, Jones boasts a professional record of 27-1-0 with one no-contest, and considering who he’s beat along the way, his career will be hard to match.