Jones makes no bones about career path

When asked how they wound up in mixed martial arts, most young fighters usually have a similar answer: They saw the sport on television, then immediately went to the local gym and started to train.

But one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's hottest young prospects, a light heavyweight with the lyrical name of Jonny "Bones" Jones, was someone who may not have discovered the sport, if not for fate.

The Endicott, N.Y., native was a state high school champion wrestler and, after placing fourth in the high school nationals in 2005, had a number of Division I scholarship offers. He planned on going to Iowa State but did not have the grades to compete, so he ended up at Iowa Central Community College, where he was the 2006 junior college national champion at 197 pounds.

All set to transfer to Iowa State and join wrestling legend Cael Sanderson, Jones had to change his priorities with his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy.

"I had a full scholarship to Iowa State and I gave up," Jones said. "We decided to put my goals aside to try and make some money. MMA looked like a way to make money."

At Iowa Central, Jones roomed with another wrestler, Joe Soto, who was "obsessed with" MMA. Soto went pro and is currently the featherweight champion of the Bellator promotion.

"In New York, I had never even heard of the UFC," Jones said. "I had no idea what it was."

Soto had already started fighting in California when Jones was hit with his change-in-life plans. Less than three years later, Jones (9-0) finds himself headlining a UFC card, as he prepares to meet Matt Hamill in the co-main event of Saturday night's Ultimate Fighter Finale card at the Palms in Las Vegas.

Jones vs. Hamill (8-2) headlines a show that could be the highest-rated live television show of the year for UFC, since it includes the first live televised UFC fight of ratings sensation Kimbo Slice as well as the finals of this season's "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show.

Hamill is one of the company's more popular fighters because he was first seen on the highly rated third season of "The Ultimate Fighter." He overcame the handicap of being deaf to have compiled a solid resume first in wrestling, where he won three Division III national championships from 1997 to 1999, as well as a gold medal in freestyle in the 2001 Deaf Olympics.

"Matt Hamill is a great guy," Jones said. "He's an inspiration for anyone with a disability. Outside the octagon, I admire him so much. Inside the octagon, he's taking money from my children's college fund."

Hamill, 33, who is coming off knee surgery from an injury picked up while training for his previous fight, is a former Olympic team hopeful with far more experience in both wrestling and MMA. But Jones believes Hamill is in for a big surprise.

"The Jon Jones of 2006 as a wrestler would destroy me today in wrestling," he said. "You have to keep up on your wrestling at the top level or you lose it. He's got better credentials than me, but he's been out of competition wrestling longer than I have. He's not the wrestler that he was during his competitive days either.

"I think I will have the edge in wrestling, striking and jujitsu. I think my wrestling and jujitsu will be much better than he's expecting."

Jones started his career in 2008 by fighting on local shows in upstate New York. But Jones demonstrated his commitment to reaching his potential by moving from his local team to one of the sport's elite camps, Greg Jackson's gym in Albuquerque, N.M.

"I was a big fish in a little pond," he said about his initial MMA training. "In every aspect of the game, [Jackson's camp has] people who are better than me. I get my butt kicked in training every day."

As coincidence would have it, Jones' three prior UFC fights were all on shows that featured Jackson's marquee fighter, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, and the two hit it off. St. Pierre was the connection in Jones getting out of training in his area gym and training with him with St. Pierre's Montreal contacts, and then onto the Jackson team that includes well-known light heavyweights Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine.

When Jones got to Albuquerque several weeks back, he thought he arrived in shape, but the altitude the first few days was tough to handle. He expects that to pay dividends, noting that in the fight which made him a star at UFC 94, a decision win over Stephan Bonnar, he was gassed after the second round.

"We'll find out in this fight what the altitude training means," Jones said.

Saturday's fight will be the next step in what has been a whirlwind UFC experience. Jones' break came after Tomasz Drwal had pulled out of UFC 87, and Jones was offered a fight with Andre Gusmao, an undefeated jujitsu specialist who was a star in the International Fight League with Renzo Gracie's New York Pit Bulls.

Jones figured he was brought in to lose, but he managed to use his wrestling to score what at the time was a major upset decision.

Jones was still largely an unknown since the match didn't air on pay-per-view. It was the Bonnar fight on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas, on the undercard of St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn, where people started taking notice.

Jones dominated the fight with his wrestling, to the point that Bonnar could never get on track until Jones got tired in Round 3. In the first 10 minutes, Jones stunned Bonnar with a series of spectacular moves, almost making it appear to look like a pro wrestling match, including using a German suplex, a backward elbow and an overhead belly-to-belly suplex.

"I watched a lot of fights on video," Jones said. "I saw all those moves used in fights and I thought I could use them."