Jon Jones has claimed the interim Light-Heavyweight UFC title after beating Ovince Saint Preux by unanimous points decision at UFC 197.
Advertisement
The 28-year-old’s win was unanimous in his favour by the three scoring judges and his career record now moves to 22-1, while 33-year-old Saint Preux slips to 19-8.
Not only did Jones inflict defeat upon “OSP”, he also left the Tennessee native with a rather serious injury.
The fifth and final round saw Jones continue to stalk Saint Preux and land a massive takedown in the third minute. While he wasn’t dominant, Jones was able to open up on Saint Preux and score.
Heavyweight Jon Jones poses with fans as he opted not to work out during a UFC 197 open workout before the crowd at the MGM Grand on Wednesday, April 20, 2016. Speaking in front of the media after his open workouts last Wednesday, Jones says he believes this is a momentary setback for “The Notorious”.
Jones is expected to face light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in his next bout to unify the titles.
Below are some of the other odds for this Saturday night’s main fights at UFC 197.
The two men will meet again with Cormier the champion in the future. Jones acknowledged that facing Saint Preux may have been the best medicine for him after such a long lay-off, but he promised to return even better when he comes back for his next fight against Cormier.
“I was way too hesitant in there”, Jones said in the post-fight press conference. Maybe I was meant to get in here and get a fight out of the way.
“Really, I was just watching”.
“A lot of guys come into college and their mindset is, ‘I want to play football in the NFL, ‘ and my mindset was along that, too”, he said, reports FOX Sports. I needed that fight before I fight for the title. Johnson changed the contest with a ferocious knee to Cejudo’s chin and quickly finished things off.
Advertisement
Earlier, Johnson retained his flyweight championship with a technical knockout of 2008 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Henry Cejudo, the fight being stopped at 2:49 of the opening round.
