This Sunday, Jon Jones will return to the Octagon after a torrid 12 months to face Ovince Saint Preux for the interim light heavyweight championship at UFC 197.
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Cormier said he goes to the doctor Monday and could be cleared to fight Jones at UFC 200, which is in sore need of a big-ticket headliner.
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. Jones defeated Cormier in January 2015, and the two will likely have a rematch. Based on the body of work, I think Fili will win this match in a match that will be a darkhorse match of the night.
In the co-main event, the UFC’s most dominant champion, Demetrious Johnson, will put his flyweight title on the line for the eighth time against possible his toughest opponent, 2008 freestlye wrestling Olympic gold medallist Henry Cejudo.
Jones was scheduled to meet Daniel Cormier before an injury sidelined the current UFC champion. “Finish if you can, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to fight DC, getting in there and haymaking with a guy who has this freakish knockout power, and a guy who gets these knockouts from these really weird and unpredictable angles”.
The underdog kept the fight on the feet for much of the fifth, but Jones landed a massive slam late in the round that caused some damage.
Jones said he felt good physically and said, “I feel I have two more rounds in me right now”. Preux, which he did, but nothing significant came from it. Jones primarily used his long legs to punish the former football player. In his eight previous career title fights, he’s an average minus-660 favorite (risking $6.60 to win $1). I definitely gave it my best. The two-time NCAA champion is coming off a first-round TKO loss to Stephen Thompson in February.
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“I was way too hesitant in there”, Jones said in the post-fight press conference. Not to mention, Jon Jones has been on the shelf with substance abuse and criminal charges, so he may not be the Jon Jones were use to seeing.
