He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels, earning consensus All-American honors in 1995.
He set the Tar Heels' career sack record (subsequently broken by Greg Ellis), and was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American in 1995.
Jones won two fights in a row after the loss before being selected to appear on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Jones was a competitor on The Ultimate Fighter which began filming on June 1, 2009 and started airing on September 16, 2009.
During pre-selection training, Jones was shown to struggle with a lack of stamina which potentially led to him being one of the final picks for Team Rampage.