Jon Bones Jones met with The Source last Monday for about twenty minutes and talked about his life’s journey and his UFC 172 match with Glover Teixeira. At full disclosure, I was a blank slate. I didn’t know who the heck he was or that he was even the champion. He grinned and told me it was okay.

Despite that disconnect, the champ and I meshed well on a few things particularly  music, video games and pop culture.

With The Source being a hip hop magazine, it was only right that I ask him how he felt hip hop and UFC interconnected: “Hip hop and UFC goes hand and hand definitely,” said Jones.

“A lot of the fighters whether black or white, Hispanic—I mean everybody comes out to hip hop nowadays. Hip hop has taken over the sports world completely. You see baseball games, you see basketball games, football games—every halftime, every second, every break in any sport hip hop comes out immediately.”

That’s highly topical. It’s one thing to sit in an interview with an athlete and they tell you what you think you want to hear. It’s completely a horse of a different color when the athlete’s persona with the media is the same as how his fans receive him too. He carries himself like a champion and the brotha is surely a fan of hip hop. He had me sold with his musical selection entering the ring: 50 Cent’s God Gave me Style segues into Jadakiss’ The Champ is Here.

Yeah that boy loves hip hop, son!

UFC 172 was held in Baltimore on Saturday, the first time that’s happened in Charm City. I made my way down I-95 to check out the champ. As great as the fight was and as skilled a fighter Jones is, by far, his ring entrance music and ring presence is boss! It was pure class to see Jones pay homage to former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, by choreographing Lewis’ squirrel dance into his ring entrance.

Check out Ray Lewis’ Squirrel Dance:

Lewis, another charismatic athlete, knows a thing or two about keeping a crowd entertained. He was in attendance at the fight. He grinned to the delight of  Jones’ rendition of his dance and ate it up!

Jon “Bones” Jones solidified his status as the best light heavyweight champion in mixed martial arts history when he defeated Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC 172. The 20-1 Jones holds the UFC record for the most light heavyweight title defenses, beating Teixeira in five rounds on a judge’s decision.

After taking in a UFC fight over the weekend and getting to know the champ earlier in the week, firsts for me, I like what I saw. With UFC becoming one of the fastest growing sports, Jones is to UFC what John Cena is to the WWE and what LeBron James is to the NBA, an athlete who has a marketable face and knows the pulse of the fan base.