On Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif., the Ultimate Fighting Championship belt — thick, black leather, covered in golden plates studded with diamonds — was wrapped around the beleaguered former U.F.C. light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones’s waist for the first time in two and a half years. And then Jones collapsed to his knees with emotion.
Fighting is about moments. It’s about men and women probing, recognizing and exploiting minuscule opportunities to render their opponents helpless. Jones, 30, is already by most accounts the greatest mixed martial arts fighter ever. In the most important fight of his career, a rematch against the defending champion and archrival Daniel Cormier, Jones seized his moment, knocking out Cormier with a devastating left head kick and a flurry of punches three minutes into the third round of a closely contested title bout.