{"id":188898,"date":"2025-10-04T04:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T04:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188898\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T04:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T04:17:08","slug":"how-arthur-jones-almost-fought-in-mma-and-inspired-younger-brother-jon-jones-nfl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188898\/","title":{"rendered":"How Arthur Jones almost fought in MMA and inspired younger brother Jon Jones | NFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HowHow Arthur Jones almost fought in MMA and inspired younger brother Jon Jones (Image via Getty) Arthur Jones<\/a>, the former Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle and Super Bowl champion, died on October 3, 2025, at the age of 39. The news was confirmed by the Baltimore Ravens. Jones, who was the oldest of the three athletic brothers, made his name in the NFL<\/a>, but he once came close to fighting in MMA. During the 2011 NFL lockout, when players were kept out of team facilities and contracts were frozen, Arthur seriously thought about stepping into the cage. His life and choices also shaped his younger brother, Jon Jones, who went on to become a UFC legend.<\/p>\n

Arthur Jones nearly entered MMA during the 2011 NFL lockout<\/p>\n

In March 2011, the NFL and the players\u2019 union failed to reach a deal on contracts, and the league shut down all activity. For Arthur Jones, then a young defensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, the long break opened a door. With no football practices or workouts, he trained in mixed martial arts. He even prepared for a real fight.Arthur Jones told the Indianapolis Star in 2014, \u201cI was supposed to take a fight when we had the lockout. I was getting ready to schedule it, and I was training for it. Thank God for the other guy, the lockout ended.\u201dArthur\u2019s background made the switch believable. He was a two-time New York state heavyweight wrestling champion and trained with his younger brother at Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He practiced boxing and wrestling every offseason, saying, \u201cIt keeps my mind fresh \u2026 and it keeps me hungry when football season comes.\u201dThough football stayed his main path, Arthur Jones often admitted MMA was an option. \u201cIf football didn\u2019t work out, me fighting in the UFC was something I entertained,\u201d he said in the same interview.Also Read: Conor McGregor And UFC Mourn Arthur Jones As Jon Jones\u2019 Super Bowl Champion Brother Dies Suddenly At 39<\/a><\/p>\n

Jon Jones says his older brother shaped his fighting spirit<\/p>\n

Arthur Jones\u2019 influence stretched far beyond football. Jon Jones, now seen as one of the greatest UFC fighters ever, has often credited his older brother for his toughness. In a 2017 interview with Bleacher Report, Jon said, \u201cI pretty much grew up getting my ass kicked by a really special talent \u2026 It\u2019s why I turned out so tough.\u201dThe two brothers also wrestled in high school. Arthur later admitted Jon had tougher competition at 195 pounds, while he wrestled at 275 pounds. \u201cJon always had hard competition \u2026 but he was a guy who never quit,\u201d Arthur recalled.Arthur Jones went on to play for the Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, and Washington, winning Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 with the Ravens. His cause of death has not been made public. Jon Jones and Chandler Jones, the youngest brother and an NFL star, have not spoken publicly yet. But Arthur\u2019s legacy, as an athlete, a fighter at heart, and a role model to his brothers, continues to echo in both the NFL and UFC worlds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How Arthur Jones almost fought in MMA and inspired younger brother Jon Jones (Image via Getty) Arthur Jones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[67818,64,63,631,786,119975,11877,785,593,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-188898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-arthur-jones","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-baltimore-ravens","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-jackson-winkeljohn-mma","14":"tag-jon-jones","15":"tag-mma","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}