UFC WW champ J.J. DuBois eyes potential move to middleweight following next title defense
Bobby Symes -- Bleacher Report MMA Writer
J.J. DuBois narrowly made weight against Colby Covington, being the last to step on the scale after failing to make the 170-pound limit in his first attempt. While the former Olympian seemed to have no issues making weight in his last title defense against Nate Diaz, the UFC's welterweight champion was candid that Friday could be his last time cutting down to welterweight as he takes on Tyron Woodley.
"Life is a lot easier when you're fighting up a weight class," said DuBois at the UFC 307's press conference on Thursday, "The best I ever felt was competing at [214 pounds] at the Olympics. You're hydrated, you're strong, you feel good all the time so I definitely think [middleweight] is in my future."
DuBois won Olympic gold medals in freestyle wrestling at both 86 kg (190 lbs) and 97 kg (214 lbs). Uriah Hall is the current champion at middleweight after defeating Israel Adesanya.
Dana White confirms J.J. DuBois will move up to middleweight to fight Uriah Hall for UFC MW title
Marc Raimondi -- ESPN.com MMA Staff Writer
At the most recent UFC press conference, UFC president Dana White confirmed that UFC middleweight champion Uriah Hall's next title defense will be against UFC welterweight champion J.J. DuBois at UFC 313 in September.
Hall beat Israel Adesanya nearly two years ago in August, ending Stylebender's reign as king of the middleweights. Hall has since fought just once, beating Marvin Vettori via split decision.
DuBois, who won his belt one month after Hall, has been the more active fighter with four title defenses in that same time span against Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, Nate Diaz and most recently Tyron Woodley.
In just thirteen UFC fights, DuBois has already beaten five former champions and three additional likely UFC Hall of Famers in the Diaz brothers and Donald Cerrone as well as well regarded veterans Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson and Leon Edwards.
'A man without a home, without a tribe', J.J. DuBois' relentless pursuit of greatness
Ben Kecko -- The Athletic MMA Writer
If a move to middleweight -- granting him fifteen extra pounds -- was supposed to make life easier on UFC welterweight champion J.J. DuBois, it wasn't evident in the modest AKA Gym in San Jose, California as he fell to his knees before rolling to his back on the bright red mats.
It was a brief moment of reprieve before DuBois got back to his feet and started the fifth of what would be an eight round sparring session for the two-time Olympian.
"He's not comfortable resting," says AKA head coach Javi Mendez of DuBois' work ethic, "It's unlike anything I've ever seen. You hear and see him winning all those championships in college, two gold medals in the Olympic at two different weight classes and it sounds fake, it doesn't sound real. When you see him put in the work, you start to understand how that's not only possible but of course he won. How could he lose?"
Mendez has coached multiple UFC champions, including DuBois' mentor Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez and Khabib Nurmagomedov so his statement isn't said nor taken lightly. For this particular training day, less than two weeks removed from his highly anticipated championship fight against UFC Middleweight Champion Uriah Hall, DuBois began the day with a three-mile run followed by a weight lifting session, some technical work with Mendez and now an eight round sparring session with a fresh opponent each round.
If that sounds exhausting, that's just before noon. He'll return back to AKA after his lunch and work on his grappling for a few hours before ending the day with conditioning work that focuses on explosive moments and short recovery periods. While that will conclude his day at AKA, once DuBois reaches his one bedroom apartment, he'll do some physical therapy with his personal trainer, maybe a massage or an ice bath if it was a particularly tough day on his body before resting his head on his pillow.
"I've been obsessed with competition and preparing for competition since I was a teenager," DuBois says between heavy breaths during a rest period, "I wish I wasn't, it's impacted my life in a lot of negative ways. I've tried to do it other ways, more balanced, more relaxed. I'll go pretty light for a day and then it'll be eleven o'clock at night and I'm on the road for hours, just running, trying to make it up. I've accepted that this is the way that I'm wired and the people around me have had to accept that as well."
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The obsession was implanted during DuBois' sophomore season at Homestead High School in Miami, Florida. DuBois, in just his second year of even knowing what the sport was, had dominated through district play before losing by technical fall -- wrestling's version of a mercy rule -- during the first round of state tournament. A few days later, DuBois was reminded by his head coach Vincent Janicki how many practices and workouts through the summer and fall that DuBois had missed or showed up late to with one excuse or another.
"A switch was flipped after that," says Janicki, who is now the wrestling coach at Doral Academy, "You try to press different buttons as a coach but you never know which ones are going to work and how long it's going to work for. A lot of guys work really hard after falling short but once they have a taste of success, they get back to their old ways but with [DuBois], it was a completely different kid after that."
For DuBois' guardian at the time, his cousin Ivenson Francois, the newly found dedication was more than welcomed. DuBois and his two siblings, Claudette and Victor, had immigrated to America due to the unsafe conditions in Haiti where their parents continued to reside. Francois, just a few years their senior at the time and fresh out of college, had his hands full with Claudette and Victor adapting to the newfound freedom in America while with J.J., he knew where he was at all times.
"If he's not at school working out, he's at the gym. That's the only thing he asked for his birthday," Francois recalls, "He wanted a gym membership, a big tub of protein powder and that's it. We don't have wrestling in Haiti so all I know is [professional wrestling] but with J.J., he learned quickly and he just got so good at it really fast."
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While the obsession might have been beneficial for Francois, DuBois readily admits it's been tough on many of those around him, including his children and their mothers.
Fresh off his first national championship as a freshman while at Penn State, DuBois met Kat Bennett at ironically a UFC watch party. The two began dating shortly after that with the couple welcoming Jean-Jacques DuBois Jr. just days before DuBois' third national championship.
"She's pretty much always been a single mom," DuBois is visibly emotional when speaking about his children, "Even when we were together, you're talking about twelve to fourteen hours day between going to school, working out, practice, and everything that goes into being a champion or what I thought it took to be a champion."
Shortly after his graduation, DuBois began an eighteen month stay at the Olympic Center in Colorado in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics while Bennett and their son were nearly 1,500 miles way in Pennsylvania. It's a sacrifice that Bennett, at the time, was willing to make.
"A lot of our dreams die pretty early," Bennett says of her understanding of DuBois' relentless pursuit, "[DuBois] decided at like fifteen he's going to be an All-American and then he decided he was going to win a national championship and then we're hanging out our junior year and he tells me he wants to be a gold medalist and how he wants to go to the Olympic Center and train and all of these things. I'm sitting here, with our kid and while I want him to be there and be at home and help me out, I also know that by him chasing his dreams and putting in that hard work, that's going to pay off tenfold for our son so that when he grows up, he'll have someone to look up to and a legacy to be proud of."
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It's while residing at the Olympic Center that DuBois would father a daughter he doesn't have much of a relationship with, seeing her for the first time weeks after she was born. It caused the end of his relationship with Bennett, who he remains in communication with as a co-parent and frequently sees his son. With his daughter and her mother, who he asked to remain anonymous, the visits are few and far in between as they live in Colorado while DuBois trains in California during training camps and lives in Florida during the offseason. His busy schedule allows for small windows of opportunities for extended visits which are often denied by the child's mother.
After his retirement from wrestling after winning his second gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, DuBois says he was fully ready to try to pick up the pieces of his home life but he felt that it was too little, too late as both mothers of his children had moved on and were in serious relationships.
"I think that situation made me worse," DuBois says of his work/life balance, "I've made a lot of mistakes and I've hurt a lot of people. I've never hurt the grind, the work, I haven't cheated on it in a long time. I've never woken up and wrestling or MMA didn't want to talk to me that day, didn't want to see me. The work is always there, it'll always be there, waiting for you. I can control how many miles I ran that day, how many sprints I did, how many rounds I sparred."
Two years later, DuBois would start his amateur MMA career and soon take the UFC by storm, forming one of the strongest resumes ever in just the span of thirteen fights. For the outside world, as he looks to become a two-division champion in the UFC, it seems improbable. For those that know the sacrifice -- like Francois, Janicki and Bennett -- it was the only possible outcome.
"You don't work that hard to finish in second place," says Bennett, "We've been second place for a while and we'll continue to be for probably the rest of his life. He's a man without a home, he's without a tribe and he doesn't need it. He just needs to compete and he needs to win, above all else."
DuBois will fight Hall on September 20th as the main event of UFC 313.
UFC 313: Uriah Hall vs. J.J. DuBois UFC Middleweight Championship Fight: September 20, 2025 - O2 Arena, London, England
(C) Uriah Hall (20-13) vs. J.J. DuBois (12-0)
Uriah Hall :: Fight Stats :: J.J. DuBois
0 - Body Health Events - 0
0 - Knockdowns - 1
0 - Leg Health Events - 0
00:01 - Control - 00:14
1/10 - Total Strikes - 12/24
0 - Stunned/Wobbled - 0
0/4 - Significant Strikes - 8/16
0/0 - Takedowns - 0/1
Sheesh, that story is ... fucking heartwrenching on the low. But really builds into the warrior mentality you were going for. This guy isn't allowed to lose. Gives him a lot of layers.
i got greedy and wanted a walk off KO while on our feet and almost got slept
