Maurice Greene: Training with Jon Jones ‘Resparked Flame’ for Fighting Career

There was a time when Maurice Greene would take virtually any fight offered in hopes of a payday.

Greene admits that approach had its downside, but things have changed in recent times now that the “The Crochet Boss” is training alongside current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

“I’ve been fighting for a long time, and for a long time it was literally just I was trying to get the biggest bag,” Greene said at Professional Fighters League press conference. “Sometimes you don’t get a full fight camp to get the bag, you have to just take fights as they come. Sometimes you don’t have all the training partners in the room, you don’t have all the resources.

“It’s hard not to do it right when you’re training with Jon Jones. It’s hard not to do it right when you’re in his camps,” Greene added. “There’s a bunch of things I do different now that I never did before. Training with Jon and the small group of guys that we’re with, it kind of resparked the flame. That fire was almost out. I was going through the motions. I’m not going through those motions no more.”

Greene will face Renan Ferreira in a heavyweight semifinal in the PFL 8 featured bout on Friday at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT following prelims on ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

“He’s a game fighter,” Greene said of his opponent. “He’s down to scrap. You know what’s coming, you know he’s gonna move forward and throw hard strikes. And you know you’re in for a fight. I welcome all of that. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t trying to fight the best guys.”

While many of Ferreira’s PFL opponents struggle with his 6-foot-8 frame, the 6-foot-7 Greene is nearly the physical equal of the Brazilian. And, he points out that he’s seen large fighters while competing under the Glory Kickboxing banner.

“You deal with guys in Glory that are just as athletic as him. They’re very fluid with their boxing, their kickboxing. I fought guys bigger; I know what somebody bigger than me looks like,” Greene said. “I don’t think he’s much bigger than me if I’m being honest. He’s an inch taller, I’m just as wide, I weight just as much.”

In addition to consistent work with Jones, Greene recently had the opportunity to learn from five-time ADCC world champion Gordan Ryan. That allowed Greene to build upon his own grappling base.

“He just taught some very useful stuff,” Greene said. “Some things I knew, but he gave me more understanding of some of those positions and some of the transitions to other positions. It was amazing to just feel what greatness is like on the jiu-jitsu mat. He’s one of a kind. The way that he’s able to articulate the sport of jiu-jitsu, it’s something. It all made sense. Something I could pick up and use Friday night.”