Jones promises to deliver the best performance of his career against Smith at UFC 235

J. Jones will make his first title defense at UFC 235. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @ufc

The UFC 235 press conference was held last Thursday night (31), in Las Vegas. Unlike other events, Jon Jones remained calm and showed respect to his next rival, Anthony Smith. However, 'Bones' promised that he will give the best performance of his career in the main fight of the card in Las Vegas, on March 02nd.

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“I'm at my best, I fought Gustafsson a few weeks ago and here I go for another training camp. The energy is really cool, I'm feeling really good, training boxing, I have a great teacher. I'm training as a lefty to feel like one. My hands are heavier training like this, I feel. Every day I discover that I don't know anything about boxing, I have a lot to improve. In this period between fights I have discovered my wildest side. This will be my best performance,” said Jones.

As the current light heavyweight champion, Jon appears as the favorite in his first title defense since regaining the title. Despite this, 'Bones' stated that he needs to be humble and take his rival seriously, as Smith has twice his experience.

“Being the favorite is a dangerous position to be in. This thing about being the favorite… You have to have the humility to understand who your opponent is, that you are taking risks. What we do in the end is fight. I made a mistake in my first fight against Gustafsson, I thought there was nothing that would surprise me, and he almost beat me. I'm taking Smith extremely seriously, he has twice my experience. He deserves to face the best version of me”, concluded the champion.

Even though he has surpassed MMA stars, such as Daniel Cormier, Mauricio Shogun, Vitor belfort e Lyoto Machida, Anthony is still questioned as a fighter. Smith said that throughout his career they doubted his ability and this is nothing new, but he stated that the duel with Jones is just another fight.

“People have doubted me my whole career, it’s nothing new for me. What we do is forget the name, not look at who is on the other side. We know who we will face and we are planning a great fight. For me, it's just a fight and I intend to be the champion for a long time. Nobody ever expected victories from me and I'm here. That’s what I’m going to do, attack the problems and go after him”, said the challenger for the light heavyweight belt.