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In lieu of raising his arms in celebration, Jon Jones lifted one finger in disgust.
Jones directed the obscene gesture as he exited the octagon after beating Ovince St. Preux by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-44) in the main event of UFC 197 at one person — rival Daniel Cormier, who was cageside calling the action.
“It felt great to do,” Jones said. “It creates buzz. It gets people ready for the fight. Me and DC don’t like each other. He’s been in my sights this whole time. We had a minor bump in the road, had to take a little detour and now it’s back to this beef.”
The way Jones tells it, the beef explains everything — including a showing that everyone, including himself, found lackluster Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Jones said he was so engrossed with the originally scheduled rematch against Cormier that three weeks wasn’t enough to fully adjust his focus to St. Preux, the late injury replacement.
Even while competing in his first bout after a suspension that lasted 15 months, Jones was thinking about the possibility of facing Cormier in the main event of UFC 200 on July 9.
“I’m not making any excuses, but that was definitely in my psychology,” Jones said. “It was, ‘All right, do what you’ve got to do to win, and finish if you can, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to fight DC getting in there haymaking with this guy who has this freakish knockout power.'”
If Jones’ only objective was to make it out safely, he was successful.
There was a brief post-fight scare with Jones confined to a wheelchair backstage. But he said it was just a precaution because his left shin and foot were swollen from a number of kicks he threw, including one that broke St. Preux’s arm in the third round. The pain subsided when Jones put on a shoe to add compression, he said.
Jones scheduled himself to get back into the gym Wednesday to restart preparations for Cormier.
Ironically, it was a shin injury from leg kicks that held Cormier out of UFC 197. The current light heavyweight champion has a doctor’s appointment to check on his leg Monday.
If he’s cleared to train, it’s expected Cormier vs. Jones II would fill the UFC 200 main-event void created by the promotion’s dispute with Conor McGregor, though Dana White wouldn’t commit to it.
“We’re working on that still; we’ll figure out what’s next,” the UFC president said before abruptly leaving the post-fight news conference.
White made it clear he was not dissuaded by the performance of Jones, who had successfully defended the light heavyweight championship eight times, including most recently against Cormier, before getting stripped of the title. Jones won every round convincingly, even if they were mostly light on action.
One of the only times Jones looked the way fans are accustomed to was late in the fourth, when he scored a takedown. St. Preux turtled up as Jones blasted him with elbows and nearly had a chance at a rear-naked choke before the end of the round.
“He got the win, but I’m really disappointed I didn’t fight him tonight,” Cormier said on the Fox Sports 1 postgame show. “There’s no way that guy could beat me.”
Jones disagreed strongly, re-emphasizing that he felt his problems were opponent-based and not emblematic of any larger issues.
“I would have beat him up pretty good because I’m tuned up to be fighting Daniel Cormier,” Jones said. “All my techniques, the angles, my ideas, I’ve been working for Daniel Cormier for over seven months.”
And now he’s going to have work for at least another two and a half months. Add it up, and that’s a long time to obsess over a single opponent.
That’s why Jones went ahead and unleashed some of his pent-up aggression, no matter how passively.
“I just wanted to give him the finger to keep it going, to get under his skin,” Jones said.
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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