text: Jones next took part in the 1995 World's Strongest Man contest. After quickly defeating Phil Martin twice in the arm wrestling event in the qualifying heat, Jones was then matched against Magnus Samuelsson, who had been Europe's arm wrestling champion for several years and who would become the World's Strongest Man in 1998. Samuelsson won the first round. In the second round Jones refused to go down and pulled with his opposite arm, twisting his body. This resulted in breaking the arm he was using to wrestle (a spiral fracture of the humerus), and he subsequently was out of the competition. Jones returned to Strongman competition in 1996, winning the World Strongman Challenge, and placed third in a World's Strongest Man qualifying heat behind Magnús Ver Magnússon and Jorma Ojanaho.
  Mixed martial arts career
  He also participated in a mixed martial arts match at Pride Fighting Championships's debut event Pride 1 in October 1997, facing Japanese professional wrestler and former grand sumo champion Koji Kitao. Jones was submitted after being caught in an armlock.
  Professional wrestling career
  World Wrestling All-Stars (2001–2002)
  After working as a bodyguard for multimillionaire Rene Rivkin, Jones began a career in wrestling during this time working for Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Jones first gained fame working in World Wrestling All-Stars, making a large impression at the first WWA pay-per-view "Inception", where he was accompanied to the ring by Rove McManus. However, he was defeated after Rove was smashed with Jeff Jarrett's guitar and Jones was hit with the Stroke.
  During his time in the WWA, Nathan won the WWA World Heavyweight Championship on 7 April 2002 before losing the belt to Scott Steiner only 5 days later.