For this segment of In Perspective, Will Miller checked in with UFC lightweight and featherweight Justin Jaynes. The two discussed Jaynes’s career, his experience in the UFC, some of his best moments, and much more. 

Justin says his favorite booking was against Frank Camacho, which was also his UFC debut. A fan of Camacho beforehand, he describes being excited to fight him in the promotion, and seeing the likes of Bruce Buffer and Herb Dean in the Octagon. He described how fast everything seemed to move, from the lead-up until the fight itself. He won in 40 seconds and also took home a $50,000 performance bonus. He took the bout on short notice, as he has for multiple UFC appearances. This led to interesting dialogue on what sort of preparations are made for a short-notice fight, as Jaynes says that depending on the amount of notice all you can really do is diet and cut weight. He walks right around the middleweight title fight limit (185 pounds).  

Specifically, Jaynes was asked what led to his facial injury at UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Volkov in February. A tough-looking injury which caused a lot of facial swelling caused his fight with Devonte Smith to be stopped, and he said that the point in the fight in which the offending strike occurred was during the second round, adding that there was no pain or break where the injury took place. 

As for his strengths in the Octagon, Justin cites what he calls “relentless” power, adding that he can score a knockout victory and land good shots. His favorite part of training is the banter. He described preparing to fight inside the 25-foot UFC Apex Octagon (a regular Octagon is 30 feet) and said that there is more grappling, fights are more “in your face”, and there’s more potential for knockouts. When discussing the weight-cutting process, Jaynes spoke about his most recent fight being the best he had felt making featherweight. He also explained in detail how it was easier to drop the first few pounds in a weight cut than the last single pound. His hardest cut was when he went from 180 pounds to 145 in three weeks. The fight with Smith was at a 160-pound catchweight. Jaynes prefers to fight at lightweight in short-notice scenarios.

When it comes to career impact, Jaynes mentioned his coaching, including his head coach, Dennis Davis, and spoke about the involvement of former UFC welterweight title challenger and former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields in his last camp. He also brought up training with fighters like Kevin Lee, Dan Ige, and Brad Tavares. Additionally, he pointed out his gratitude for his management team. 

As far as opponents, Justin expressed interest in a fight with an Octagon veteran like Michael Johnson, whom he cut weight with for the two’s fights in February. A specific opponent he went into detail on the prospect of facing is 21-year-old Chase Hooper, portraying the potential matchup as “an old dog teaching the young fellow new tricks.” When asked about a game plan with respect to Hooper’s ground attack, Jaynes replied that he is “no slouch on the ground”, as he has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. An ideal time frame for that fight if it materialized, he said, would be September. His toughest opponent on paper was Gavin Tucker, which was also Jaynes’s 145-pound debut. He also wanted to answer former training partner Evan Dunham’s 2020 callout and retire him, but could not before Dunham was let go from the UFC.

Crowd-wise, Justin says he would rather fight with a crowd, as opposed to in the Apex. He highlighted a King of the Cage event in his home state of Michigan as one with a particularly good crowd and atmosphere, adding that he enjoys doing his walkout and hearing the fans. His grittiest fight, he said, was his latest one against Charles Rosa, and that he was “swinging for the fences” in that particular outing. As for Jaynes’s mindset when entering any fight, he is always looking to knock the opponent out, and just wants to take the fight to somebody.