There have been few debuts that were as exciting and memorable as Trevin Jones’. After taking a fight with Timur Valiev on short notice, Jones was dropped badly in the first. He’d not only survive the Russian’s onslaught, but would score one of the greatest comebacks in UFC history with a finish in the second.
After that win, Jones would take two straight fights against late replacements of varying experience in the UFC. Although the first one went his way, much like the Valiev fight did, he was less lucky in the second. A guillotine loss to Saidyokub Kakhramonov gave him his first loss in the UFC and made him rethink things a bit.
“Before I was trying to be a company man. I was trying to do my job,” Jones said. “I flew all the way from Guam and was just trying to do my job.”
Having beaten Valiev on short notice, as well as having successfully dealt with an opponent switch before, Jones was confident.
“I got here when I was scheduled to fight Randy Costa and it ended up getting switched to Mario Bautista – both opponents for that camp and the [Saidyokub] Kakhramonov camp pulled out at the same time,” he said. “So I was kind of like, ‘oh, I fought off the switch before.”
However good that confidence felt, Jones now recognizes that it was not necessary for him to put himself in those types of places.
“I was just putting myself in positions that I didn’t have to put myself in because I had success doing it before,” Jones admits.
While this realization might make you think that late replacement fights are a thing of the past for Jones, don’t be too certain. While he is making sure to take care of himself better, he won’t ever turn down a big moment in his career on principle.
“Well, I think it all depends on how your career is going in the UFC. I think it depends on if I’m on a nice win streak and they need me for something special,” Jones said. “If I feel like I can do it, then I’m going to jump in there and do it.”
Jones gets his first crack at a full camp for just one fighter at UFC Vegas 50 when he fights Javid Basharat. That fight is on the ESPN+ prelims this Saturday.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 36:21.
