Jonathan Dwight Jones is an American professional mixed martial artist signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the UFC Heavyweight Champion. A professional competitor since 2008, Jones was previously the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion from 2011 to 2015 and from 2018 to 2020, as well as the interim UFC Light Heavyweight Champion in 2016. As of November 7, 2023, he is #2 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings. He is regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.
Jones in 2014
Jones and basketball player Glen Davis in 2010
Jon Jones posing with Marines at Camp Pendleton in 2010.
Jon Jones with Lorenzo Fertitta and Glover Teixeira at a U.S. Senate event in 2014
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. The first documented use of the term mixed martial arts was in a review of UFC 1 by television critic Howard Rosenberg in 1993.
Junior dos Santos vs. Shane Carwin, main event of UFC 131 in Vancouver in 2011
A Chinese martial artist preparing to throw his opponent during a lei tai contest in Ancient China.
The Pancrastinae: A statue portraying the pancratium, an event which took place in the Roman Colosseum. Even as late as the Early Middle Ages, statues were put up in Rome and other cities to honor remarkable pankratiasts. This statue, now part of the Uffizi collection, is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original, circa 3rd century BC.
Bruce Lee popularized the concept of mixed martial arts via his hybrid philosophy of Jeet Kune Do during the late 1960s to early 1970s.