Love him or hate him, it seems everyone in the MMA community has an opinion about Jon Jones. And in that same stadium, everybody could learn something from him as well, whether that be what to do inside of it or what not to do outside of it. Former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is no exception, as he has also learned from Jones in a way that factors in both the personal and professional life of one of MMA’s most polarizing figures:
“I am best when I’m in chaos,” Tyron Woodley said in a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show. “And I had to come to grips with that. I heard Jon Jones say he didn’t train in between camps. I’m like, damn, I thought I was the only one. It was kind of my hidden secret.
“And if you notice, Jon…not to compare myself to Jon because, in my opinion, he may be the best MMA athlete we’ve ever seen…but Jon has had so much chaos in his life outside the Octagon, but he’s managed to hone in inside the Octagon. And I’ve found that, don’t run from it. Don’t hide from it. God built you a certain way.”
Tyron Woodley, who was recently forced out of his UFC Minneapolis headlining rematch against Robbie Lawler due to injury, will continue to have time to reflect and wax on matters of self and life. Some fruits of these musings can be found in Woodley’s message that he has internalized which could apply to any individual in any line of work:
“And I say this time and time again, the renaissance man was a man that did a lot of things good but did no things great. But that was his ass; that ain’t me. I won’t sit on gifts. I won’t sit on gifts that God gave me. Because if you sit on them, you bury them, they get taken away,(and) somebody else do it.”
The gift of the welterweight championship was taken away from Tyron Woodley by Kamaru Usman at UFC 235, but Tyron Woodley will look to follow the path of former champions, like Jon Jones, who have also stumbled before picking themselves back up and discovering a self-renaissance.
What do you take away from what Tyron Woodley has learned from Jon Jones?
