How Arthur Jones nearly took an MMA fight and his influence on younger brother and UFC star Jon Jones

The sporting world is mourning the death of Arthur Jones, the former Super Bowl-winning defensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. Jones, 39, was the oldest of three brother who came from a family of elite athletes, including legendary UFC champion Jon Jones. In fact, Arthur nearly followed his younger brother into mixed martial arts.

Arthur contemplated fighting MMA during the 2011 NFL Lockout. In March 2011, the NFL and the players’ union failed to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement. Owners imposed a lockout, shutting down team facilities and workouts and stopped paying players’ contracts. With Arthur unable to train or workout with his Baltimore Ravens teammates during the lockout, which lasted until July 25, he seriously considered taking an MMA fight.

“I love MMA,” Arthur told the Indianapolis Star in 2014. “It’s fun to watch, and it’s something I entertained early in my football career, if football didn’t work out, of me fighting in the UFC. But things are going well for me right now, so I’m going to stick with my career.

“I was supposed to take a fight when we had the lockout a few years ago. I was getting ready to schedule it, and I was training for it. Thank God for the other guy, the lockout ended.”

Arthur has some martial arts experience. He was a two-time New York state wrestling heavyweight champion, and trained in other disciplines with Jon at Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during the offseason.

“I was a really good wrestler, so that was my base, but I do a lot of boxing in a my off-season training,” Arthur said. “I train at Greg Jackson’s pretty much every offseason.

“I love it. It keeps my mind fresh. It just keeps me hungry when it’s football season because I’m training parts and muscles and different things, and it keeps me active in different ways so I don’t get bored doing the same thing with football.”

Jon, considered by many to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time and indisputably the best light heavyweight champion in UFC history, credited his fighting mentality to growing up as Arthur’s younger brother.

“Not only was Arthur older and bigger, but he was a freak athlete,” Jon told Bleacher Report in 2017. “So, yeah, I pretty much grew up getting my ass kicked by a really special talent. I think it’s why I turned out to be so tough.

“Sometimes we’d just slap each other, and a fight would break out. That’s what brothers do. That’s what makes us all great competitors: We never back down from anything.” 

Arthur and Jon were both high school wrestling standouts, but Arthur acknowledged that his younger brother was the more talented wrestler.

“I must confess here: I had the much easier route wrestling at 275,” Arthur said. “Jon had all the studs in his weight class, wrestling 195. Those are men sizes — the average man as a senior or junior in high school. His competition was a lot stiffer than mine. I had better competition once I got to the state level, but Jon always had tough competition. But he was a guy who never quit.” 

Emergency Medical Services responded to Jones’ home in Syracuse, New York, shortly before 11 a.m. on Friday, according to News Channel 9’s Steve Infanti. An Onondaga County Sheriff’s spokesperson told the outlet that Jones’ pacemaker went off in the morning, automatically alerting his doctor. Jones had a pre-existing heart condition.

Jon and Chandler Jones, the youngest of the three Jones brothers, have not publicly addressed his passing.