By Brian Hemminger

The UFC sent me an invite to their media conference call with the main event fighters for their 2nd show on the Versus channel, Jon Jones and Vladimir Matyushenko.  Below is an excerpt of their press release for the event.  I plan on posting a summary of the call, which starts at 2:00 pm eastern time after the jump.

About UFC on Versus:

Ultimate Fighting Championship sensation Jon “Bones” Jones will attempt to continue his rapid ascension in the light heavyweight division when he steps into the Octagon against veteran fighter Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko live from the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, Calif. on August 1.  Both fighters are coming off victories on the premiere of UFC on Versus in March, highlighted by Jones who defeated Brandon “The Truth” Vera in the main event.  Also featured on the card is a middleweight matchup between Mark Munoz and Yushin Okami.

-Ouch, some disrespect for Matyushenko with the first question, talking about Matyushenko not being the right fighter for Jones as he moves forward with his career.

-Wow, the moderator of the call says there’s an emergency in their building and they had to disconnect, interesting.  Apparently a fire alarm went off and they had to evacuate.  The rest of the call is a different moderator taking our questions via e-mail and asking them to Jones and Matyushenko personally while we listen in.

-Matyushenko: “I can’t make my reach longer or get taller, but I can train as hard as I possibly can and I’ll be ready on August 1st

-Jones: “A real champion focuses on what they don’t know, not what they know.  Everyone is saying all these things about me, but I’m not saying them.  I think it’s really important to stay grounded.

-Matyushenko says he’s not concerned about all the hype surrounding Jones.  He says that with a victory over Jones, all that hype will transfer over to him so he appreciates it.

-Jones says Matyushenko is tougher than Brandon Vera and Matt Hamill.  He’s watched all of Matyushenko’s fights and he’s very impressed with his ability to grind guys down.  He’s not flashy, but he’s effective and he wins.

-Matyushenko says he got the nickname “The Janitor” because he helped clean up the mats at a big tournament, and people joked that he didn’t fight there, he just worked there.  Someone nicknamed him The Janitor and it stuck with him.

I asked Matyushenko: You fought for the UFC light heavyweight title nearly 9 years ago, but MMA has exploded in popularity since then.  Do you think this main event fight with Jon Jones is the most high profile fight of your career?

Matyushenko said that the Tito fight was really big for him personally, but yeah, this is probably the biggest fight of his career

I also asked Jon Jones whether he would be open to fighting his training partner Rashad Evans down the road.

Jones said “No, most certainly not, never.” Interesting

Matyushenko was asked about the biggest differences in the UFC and MMA since he came back.  He said that the media has really grown, fighters are celebrities now.  The public is more educated, there’s less people yelling and screaming for to kick each other in the balls, people understand the sport better now.  He’s learned how to train properly, how to recover properly and while it is getting harder since he’s getting older, he’s also getting smarter with his MMA knowledge.

-Jones says that Phil Nurse has trained him to diversify his striking.  He’s the one that embraces spinning techniques and flying techniques and he’s helped him out considerably.

-Jones said that no, he never turned down a fight with Lil Nog, that report was false, but if he was offered it at the time, he might have turned it down because he doesn’t think he’s ready.  He actually sat down with the reporter that made up the story.

-Jones says he wants to use Vladimir’s experience against him, by showing him something he’s never seen before.  ”He’s never fought anyone like me.”

-Matyushenko says Jones is very unpredictable, he might not even know what he’s going to do next.  He says that Jon Jones doesn’t remind him of any fighter he’s faced before.  He’s part of the new generation of fighters.

-Jones says he’s been working with an Olympic level wrestler to prepare his takedown defense.  He actually had him move into his house and live with him in preparation.

-Jones says he hasn’t gotten involved politically but to help get MMA legalized in his home state of New York, he has to continue being an honorable, respectable man.  He won’t swear, you’ll never see him in a bar fight and he wants to be a good roll model for people.

-Jones in closing “I’m honored to fight a guy that’s helped pave the way for me.  24 wins is nothing to laugh at, he’s a warrior.”