“Usually I’m a lot taller than my opponents. So when I put a knee up it usually lands to the chest or the stomach. [Andre Gusmao] is one of the taller opponents who I fought and I may have caught him a little low, which was totally accidental. But it feels great [to win in the UFC]. I thought about this many, many nights — dreaming about it, eating right and training hard. I accomplished my first goal. A big one, anyway.”

– Jon Jones talks about his winning Octagon debut at UFC 87: “Seek and Destroy” against Andre Gusmao this weekend at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The light heavyweight bout was stopped several times because Gusmao went down because of errant knees to the groin area. In Jones’ defense, replays showed that at least one of the blows Gusmao claimed was low really wasn’t. Anyway, Jones — who has a long and wiry frame similar to Anderson Silva — excited the crowd with his raw talent and improvisation within the cage that included spinning backfists, double spinning back elbows … crazy stuff. For someone with very little MMA experience he put on quite a show against a super tough opponent … on super short notice. Keep an eye out for this kid — he appears to have a very bright future. And his personality outside the cage is equally as impressive.