Jon Jones' remarkable comeback to a familiar place: on top of the world

It was inevitable that Jon Jones would end up as the heavyweight champion of the world. When Jones choked out Ciryl Gane in just 2 minutes and 4 seconds on Saturday in Las Vegas to capture the vacant UFC belt, it fulfilled a prophecy -- right? Long ago, the foreshadowing began that Jones was bigger than light heavyweights could handle.

Jones' larger-than-life supremacy was evident when he first stepped into the Octagon nearly 15 years ago and began tossing around his fellow 205-pounders, including a long line of former champions and future Hall of Famers. He stood taller than almost all matched against him, and his wingspan stretched to inescapable lengths. Jones' fights often looked like matchups of athletes from different weight classes.

At UFC 285, though, Jones picked on somebody his own size -- or at least very close to it. Jones weighed in the day before at 248 pounds, a half-pound more than Gane, a career-long heavyweight. That meant Jones, returning to the cage after three years away from the sport, was 43 pounds heavier than the weight at which he had stepped on the scale before all of his record 11 title defenses in the 205-pound division. It was like he'd evolved into a whole new man.

And yet one thing about Jones has not changed. The measure of his immensity at 205 pounds has never been confined to his physical stature. He has always expressed it even more emphatically in a metaphorical sense, in how he seizes upon big moments and thrives within them. The swagger of Jones was and still is massive enough to swallow up the whole sport. And in this weekend's return, he did not shrink from his latest monumental moment.

Jones put on a performance that was stunning in both its dominance and brevity. Walking out to a hero's welcome back from an adoring (and forgiving) crowd at T-Mobile Arena, Jones took time to soak in the moment, stopping at cageside to hug his father, brothers and fiancée. He then stepped inside the cage for the first time in 1,121 days and cartwheeled across the center, just like old times. After being introduced by Bruce Buffer as "the one and only," Jones showed why those words were not hyperbole.

The fight was not a minute old before Jones had Gane wrapped up and under control, and within another half a minute, he had the Frenchman on the canvas. Jones then straddled a seated Gane against the cage, rendering him helpless before sinking in the guillotine choke that made "Jonny Bones" a champion once more.

"Man, I'm so excited," Jones said after leaping on top of the cage to celebrate, then climbing down to lift up his father and carry him around, both wearing huge smiles. "I've been working for this for a long time. A lot of people thought I wouldn't even be coming back. I've been reading it all the time: 'This dude's never coming back.' But I've been faithful to my goal."