The return of Jon Jones is upon us.

The former UFC light heavyweight king and pound-for-pound phenom will make his official grappling debut against Dan Henderson on Sunday night at Submission Underground 2 in Portland, Ore.

While Jones will have to keep the elbows and brutal ground-and-pound attack in check, SUG 2 presents a brand new lane for the phenom to showcase his skillset. Furthermore, with his MMA return paused until July of 2107, grappling Henderson in a submission only event will provide Jones a lane to keep the competitive fires raging.

"It's something to keep me busy, something to keep me active," Jones said. "I've had a long layoff before fighting Saint Preux and it wasn't my best performance and so I'm really trying to keep my competitive spirit alive and things like that. I'm excited to get out there and inspire my competitiveness."

With Jones' comeback front and center, the focus has additionally shifted to the man he will face inside the SUG cage on Sunday night.

The New York native was initially slated to face the MMA legend four years ago at UFC 151 until a knee injury forced Henderson to the sidelines. The former Olympian's withdrawal from the event led to a mountain of controversy where Jones is concerned, and in the lead up to SUG 2 the former 205-pound king has been clear about his motives.

For Jones this match isn't about revenge on any level, it's about checking off an accomplishment he thought would be lost forever.

"I don't feel like it's something that needed to happen but it's something that I'm certainly glad is happening," Jones said. "I had the opportunity to compete against some of the greatest fighters ever -- excluding Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Dan, and Tito. To get one of these legends under my belt is going to be great for me and I'll tell my grandkids about it one day."

And while Jones may be widely regarded as the greatest fighter to ever compete in the MMA realm, he's very much aware of how that perspective will shift in his new competitive format.

Therefore SUG 2 will put Jones in a position where he has to show and prove, and there's nothing that motivates Jones more than a challenge.

'It's important for me," Jones said. "I feel like a lot of my fans hold me to high expectations when it comes to me inside of the octagon -- not so much outside of the octagon, but I feel like most of my performances are dominant. So I don't really feel like I have the luxury to not perform and extremely impress the fans. I feel pressure from myself and feel pressure from my fans to not only win but to look great doing it. And that's my plan, to go out there and really dominate the way I've done in mixed martial arts.

"I feel like I have a gift in mixed martial arts to do really well and to make it seem effortless -- and I'm grateful for, but I don't know what the gift looks like in jiu-jitsu. I'm assuming that I'll be on and I'll do really well, but no one's ever seen me or Dan in this situation so that's a question that will have to be answered on the 11th."

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