(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

At 26, Jon Jones is the greatest mixed martial artist on the planet, and he might retire as the best ever.

But like anyone at the top of his profession, Jones often is pestered by those who seek to bring him down. The UFC light heavyweight titleholder is learning to embrace their hate.

“Maybe I’m just getting more comfortable in my own skin, realizing that I’m trying to do things right and that some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com.

“To be honest with you — and I know this might be controversial and it may get me a lot of backlash — my haters come across as the dumbest people ever. None of them have a real reason not to like me. ‘Oh, you’re too tall.’ ‘I don’t like you.’ Or, ‘You’re this or that.’ None of them come up with anything good or concrete, so I just find them funny.”

Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history at 23 when he won the title in March 2011. Having fought professionally for less than three years at the time, Jones says he was just a kid who was coming into his own as an athlete and a man.

Son of a preacher, brother of two NFL players, father of two young girls, Nike-sponsored athlete, fast-rising face of the world’s largest MMA promotion — Jones plays many roles in his day-to-day life.

But many of his critics say the man who appears in public is not the one who exists behind the scenes. They call him fake.

Jones has an answer for that.

“I am fake,” Jones says. “I think everyone is fake, to an extent. I have many different sides to me. I can be rude. I can be funny. I can be goofy. I can be cocky at times. I swear I have split personalities. So no one is going to understand me. I’m not meant to be understood.

“You can show up to an arena in a terrible mood, and then when you get the camera and the lights and the fans there, you’ve got to wake up. You’ve got to smile. Even if you’re not in the mood to be happy or whatnot, you’ve just got to put it on. So that’s what I mean when I say I am fake. You’ve got to put it on when it’s time to put it on. There are just so many different sides to people.”

Jones (18-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) steps into the spotlight again Saturday when he meets Swedish challenger Alexander Gustafsson (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) in the main event of UFC 165 at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET).

With five successful title defenses to his name, Jones is tied with UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz for the most in the company’s light heavyweight division. During that stretch, Jones has looked almost unbeatable, and oddsmakers consider him a heavy favorite to keep his belt.

In short, Jones is one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history. Whether his doubters ever recognize his greatness no longer matters to the champ.

“I’m just me,” Jones says. “I wake up as many different people. But at the end of the day, I know that I love Christ. I love my family. I know I love mixed martial arts. I know I love my friends, and they’re going to see different sides of me on different days.

“Maybe I appear to be fake, but it’s not really my job to try to be one person. I need to be who I am, and that’s many different characters.

“The biggest goal of mine is just to go back to Ithaca (N.Y.) after this fight and be happy and just think to myself, ‘Wow. I did it again. Another job well done.'”

For more on UFC 165, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.