When asked about his start in the sport of MMA, Jones said "I was a pretty serious wrestler in high school and I won the State Championship my senior year. Then I went off to college and won the Junior College National Championship (JUCO) in 2006, from there I had a full scholarship to wrestle at Iowa State, and then I decided I wanted to go into MMA."

Since then he's become the USKBA light-heavyweight champion and has gone undefeated in MMA while catching the eye of the biggest MMA organization in the world.

Jones was recently signed to a four-fight deal with the UFC, and his first test comes in under two weeks when he faces the IFL's unbeaten Andre Gusmao (5-0) on the undercard of the event.

"I'm really stoked about the situation" said Jones of his fight with Gusmao. "I found out maybe a week after my last fight which was July 13th (a second round TKO win over Moyses Gabin), I know this is a big opportunity for me and I'm just trying to keep my head on straight."

About his opponent Andre Gusmao, Jones had this to say, "I saw some of his videos on YouTube and he seems like a really athletic guy. He does capoiera and I know he's trained by Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I think this is a good fight for me. He's a stand-up fighter and has good grappling, I consider myself a stand-up fighter and I'm a really good wrestler. I'm definitely training for submission defenses and there's not much on the ground that I wouldn't expect from a Gracie trained brown belt. I know he's won his fights by TKO, but I don't really think he has a lot of KO power, but I'm not going to take anything away from him and I definitely respect him as an opponent."

On a possible game plan against Gusmao, Jones quipped, "I don't really come up with a game plan, I just work on making myself the best fighter I can be for that night and working from where my strengths are at. A perfect night for me would be knocking him out in the first round."

I had the pleasure of seeing Jones fight on June 20th in Wilmington, Mass. for Joe Cavallaro's World Championship Fighting promotion, and he excited the crowd with his 36-second knockout of opponent Parker Porter. Granted, there's a world of difference between Porter and Gusmao, but if Jones comes out as dangerous against Gusmao as he was that night in Wilmington, the Brazilian might be in for a long night.