UFC 235: Jon Jones retains light heavyweight belt

LAS VEGAS — Jon Jones defended his light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Anthony Smith at UFC 235 on Saturday night, overcoming a two-point deduction for an illegal knee to Smith’s head in the fourth round.

Kamaru Usman claimed the UFC welterweight title in the penultimate bout at T-Mobile Arena, dominating Tyron Woodley in a one-sided unanimous decision victory.

Ben Askren, Woodley’s close friend and training partner, survived an opening-minute beating and rallied to choke out Robbie Lawler midway through the first round of his own UFC debut.

Jones (24-1) had little trouble in an expert display of his all-around brilliance against the overmatched Smith (31-14), who had no answers for the likely pound-for-pound champion of mixed martial arts.

Jones dominated on his feet, against the cage and on the ground until he got in trouble in the fourth round when his knee struck Smith’s head while the challenger was in a downed position. Referee Herb Dean deducted two points from Jones, who apologized to Smith after the bell.

“This MMA thing is really hard,” Jones said. “Some days you’re going to look amazing, and some days at work you’re not going to perform at the level you hold yourself to.”

Jones finished uneventfully and remained unbeaten since 2009, winning a decision for the fifth time in his last seven fights.

Jones won 48-44 on all three scorecards.

Jones has been the UFC’s 205-pound champ for long stretches of the past eight years, but also has been stripped of his belt twice. After doping suspensions and other woes limited Jones to just two fights in a nearly four-year stretch of his prime, he returned to the cage at UFC 235 just nine weeks after beating Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 last December to reclaim his belt.

Smith, a tough veteran fighter from Texas, got a title shot when Jones decided to make a quick return to the cage. Although Smith had won three consecutive fights, he was a heavy underdog at the Vegas sports books, but Jones emerged with respect for Smith’s fighting spirit.

“I have never had anyone talk to me while I’m hitting them,” Jones said. ”(Smith was) saying like, ‘That was nice,’ or, ‘Was that all you’ve got?’”

soure: sports.inquirer.net

MMA: Jones stripped of UFC title after drugs ban

LOS ANGELES, United States — Mixed martial arts star Jon Jones, suspended for a year after testing positive for a banned drug, has been stripped of the Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight interim title, UFC president Dana White said Wednesday.

White told an ESPN podcast that Jones “has blown it in every way, shape and form a guy with that much talent can blow it.”

“Greatest talent ever and the biggest screw-up ever,” White said of the 29-year-old, who was handed a one-year ban after taking a sexual-performance pill tainted with a performance-enhancing substance.

The US Anti-Doping Agency announced the ban on Monday, saying it will be applied retroactively to the date of the positive test and that Jones will be free to fight again in July of 2017.

Jones was dubbed the interim champion in April, when he defeated Ovince St. Preux at UFC 197. He had been scheduled to fight Daniel Cormier for the official title, but Cormier pulled out with an injury.

“It doesn’t make sense with all the stuff that is going on for him to still be the interim champion,” White said.

Jones was already serving a suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a positive test conducted in June for clomiphene and Letrozole, both testosterone-boosting drugs.

In 2015, the UFC stripped Jones (22-1) of the official title after he was arrested on a hit-and-run charge. CBB

source: sports.inquirer.net

UFC: Jon Jones jailed for violating probation, rematch with Cormier in jeopardy

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones is once again at odds with the law, after an Albuquerque judge issued a warrant for his arrest on Tuesday, March 29 (Wednesday, March 30, Manila time).

The troubled mixed martial arts (MMA) star turned himself to authorities in the wake of the citation he got for allegedly drag racing near a traffic stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week—citing reports from MMA website mmamania.com.

It probably didn’t help that Jones, who was once ranked number one in the UFC’s pound for pound list, was videotaped losing his cool and calling the police officer at the scene a ‘despicable pig’.

The 28-year-old New York native is under strict probation due to his involvement in a hit-and-run case in 2015.

One of the terms for his indefinite parole was to stay away from legal trouble—a promise he clearly violated which prompted his arrest.

Jones, who spoke with the MMAHour about the incident, insisted that the details about his felony was completely fabricated by the police officer.

“I think he was a DWI [Driving While Intoxicated] cop. He wanted to find a drunk driver, and once he saw that I was sober, he wanted to find something to justify pulling me over,” said the accused Jones.

He did, however, admit to spatting unpleasant things to the police officer, which Jones claims as something he ‘regrets doing’.

“Bones” is still expected to headline the upcoming UFC 197 pay-per-view (PPV) event on April 23 in Las Vegas, Nevada, against longtime rival and current 205-pound titleholder Daniel Cormier.
Meanwhile, the UFC has recently released a statement to the media addressing the situation via MMA Fighting:

“UFC is aware that Jon Jones turned himself into the Albuquerque Police Department this morning for a potential probation violation stemming from a traffic stop last week. The UFC has been in touch with Jones’ legal team and will have no further comment until the organization has had appropriate time to gather necessary information,”.

source: sports.inquirer.net