While Jon Jones was victorious Saturday night in his title defense against Chael Sonnen (first-round TKO), the UFC 159 main event was marred by a gruesome injury to the light heavyweight champion.
According to FOX Sports and UFC president Dana White, Jones reportedly suffered a compound fracture of the big toe on his left foot.
WARNING! Graphic photo of injury below.
White spoke more about Jones’ injury after the fight, “He wouldn’t have been able to go back out. They would have stopped the fight. A bone was sticking out of his toe.”
Jones said in a post-fight interview that he may have broke the toe by getting it stuck in the mat during a takedown attempt, and it wasn’t until a closer look that he saw blood and realized his toe was facing the wrong direction.
That’s never good.
While Jones stole the show with a dominant victory over one of the biggest trash talkers in the sport and his rival coach on The Ultimate Fighter, the defending champion was by far the luckiest man in the entire building.
White is 100 percent correct; if the referee saw Jones’ foot, the fight would have been stopped.
An injury that severe would have forced to fight’s conclusion in between rounds, and when a fight is stopped in that manner, it would have been Sonnen that walked away with the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
With just 27 seconds left in the first round when the referee jumped in to stop the fight, it was clear that Jones was the most dominant fighter in the division and one of the greatest champions the UFC has ever had on its roster.
While the better fighter typically prevails in MMA, sometimes it’s the right combination of natural skill, hard work and a little bit of luck that leads to victory.
Jones had all three working at UFC 159.
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