Jones seemed to be playing this humbled and changed person in the cage, expressing disappointment in his performance and saying perhaps he wasn’t prepared to fight Cormier on Saturday night. A showdown between Jones and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier would hold wide appeal, and may been seen by White and the UFC hierarchy as a solid main-event choice. Jones defeated Cormier via unanimous decision in their first meeting at UFC 182 in January 2015. Jones will now face explosive former college football player and Strikeforce veteran Ovince Saint Preux.
Advertisement
Banquet director Stephen Simard said the hotel shows every UFC pay-per-view, but the ones with top fighters from Albuquerque such as Holly Holm and Jones draw large audiences. Jones vs St Preux Odds have Jones a better than 5 to 1 favorite as we are a few days away from the fight. No one credits him as a full champion until he beats Jones and he knows that.
Slated to take place at the newly built T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the said event was originally supposed to be headlined by featherweight world champion Conor McGregor and former 155-pound title contender Nate Diaz in a rematch of their UFC 196 fight.
The UFC is now without a main event for UFC 200 after the promotion pulled Conor McGregor from the card last week when he refused to travel from Iceland to Las Vegas to promote the fight.
Jones, after almost 16 months without action, shook off some early rust to convincingly defeat Ovince Saint Preux at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, courtesy of a unanimous points decision. And Jones, who lost his light heavyweight title while he dealt with numerous legal issues, doesn’t really like the interim belt anyway.
Those in attendance witnessed Jones move a step closer to regaining the title that was stripped of him by the fight promotion.
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. I tend not to sleep with my wife leading up to a fight. “I can be a lot better”.
Advertisement
Jones said he felt good physically and said, “I feel I have two more rounds in me right now”. Jones said he was banged up coming out of the fight, though, which puts that possibility in question.
