Jon Jones reveals he crawled out to fight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in order to avoid a nightmare

One of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ signature moves is the crawl he makes when he enters the Octagon, and he recently explained why he does it.

The first time Jones did the crawl was before he fought Quinton “Rampage” Jackson back at UFC 135 in September 2011. Jones recently admitted that he had nightmares before fighting Jackson and said it was one of the only fights in his career that gave him any sort of fear before he stepped into the Octagon.

A fan responded to Jones talking about the Rampage fight on social media, and Jones responded to them, explaining that he introduced his signature crawl into the Octagon at UFC 135 in order to escape the nightmares he had before fighting Rampage.

Here’s what Jones wrote on Twitter.

In my nightmare I always started standing so to make sure that dream didn’t come true. I decided to crawl https://t.co/j1pftnezok

— BONY (@JonnyBones) November 16, 2019

“In my nightmare I always started standing so to make sure that dream didn’t come true. I decided to crawl”

This is one of the first times Jones has ever admitted he was even in the least bit nervous heading into a fight. Of course, he was able to conquer any of the fears he had, as he submitted Jackson via fourth-round submission at UFC 135 in what was at the time his first successful title defense at the time. He’s since defended the UFC light heavyweight belt a record 10 times and is widely considered to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time.

As for what’s next for Jones, he’s slated to take on top contender Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 in February 2020 in Houston, Texas. It will be the first time Jones has fought since a controversial split decision win over Thiago Santos back at UFC 239 this past summer. As for Jackson, he is not the fighter he used to be but he is still competing and is slated to take on fellow legend Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of Bellator Japan on New Year’s Eve.

Are you excited to see Jon Jones fight Dominick Reyes?