Las Vegas, NV — There is arguably no better comeback of the year candidate in 2020 thus far than Trevin Jones, and his finish of Timur Valiev at UFC Vegas 7.
Jones found himself worked over in the opening round of the 140lb catchweight fight, after Valiev caught him with a kick to the body. The ref took a good long look, admonished Jones to move, but let the fight continue.
In the second, he caught Valiev with a hook and finished the fight. A big win for Jones, who took the fight on short notice. Both he and Valiev were making their promotional debuts.
“It was just a good kick. It wasn’t enough to put me away,” Jones (13-6) said following the bout at the UFC Apex, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press.
The second round, Jones said, “was a fresh start. Let’s go.”
“It’s MMA, everyone gets good hits,” he said of Valiev’s first-round attack. “I’m an MMA fan, I watch UFC, I watch MMA all day. I watch guys come back, so that was just another comeback.” Well, maybe, but it was one very impressive comeback.
“He caught me with a nice push kick to the stomach. Got good timing on it,” added Jones, before noting that “I’m tough. I knew I was going to the second round.”
“I knew I had the skills to put him away, but it was short notice. So of course the game plan was just to come out here and fight hard. If he gives anything, we’re going to take it,” he continued. “I couldn’t really execute my normal style, because it was such late notice, the weight cut and everything. But the move that I caught him with, we were looking for that punch. We were looking for that right hook. It was called right before I came out, check hook.”
Despite the adversity in the opening round of the short-notice bout, Jones says he never had any moment of doubt. The question of “what the hell am I doing here?” never crossed his mind.
“No, there was never a moment like that. I knew I got caught with a good shot,” the fighter from Guam reiterated. “I can’t be asking for a UFC opportunity and something like that happens, and I’m ready to quit off the first shot. It’s going to take a lot more than that to put me away.”
Believe it or not the biggest struggle Jones had in the past week was with paperwork. “That was the hardest part,” he exclaimed. “The paperwork that I had to go through, on the late notice, while cutting weight, was extremely challenging. It was exhausting. Back and forth, the Vegas heat is killer right now.”
Driving from appointment to appointment to get the necessary medical clearances was draining, especially in a hot car. “I was just happy I was able to get out there and perform with the way things were going.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 7 post-fight press scrum with Trevin Jones above.
