Jon Jones is supposed to be nursing a torn pectoral muscle and injured elbow, but the UFC heavyweight champion was seen this week participating in a professional rugby practice.
Fight fans were hoping to see Jones defend his UFC heavyweight title late last year in a legacy fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295. Unfortunately, Jones ended up tearing his pectoral muscle and the promotion pivoted to an interim title fight between heavyweight contenders Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich. Aspinall ended up winning the fight in the first round and walked away with the interim UFC heavyweight strap.
Following Aspinall’s convincing win, fight fans were hoping to see the English star matched up against Jones for the undisputed heavyweight title. However, Jones is still sidelined with his pectoral muscle and just last month revealed that he had a second surgery on a bum elbow. This has pretty much sidelined “Bones” for the first half of 2024.
Sadly, Jones’ absence from fighting doesn’t necessarily mean he’s taking it easy outside of the cage.
A video surfaced this week that shows Jones taking part in a practice with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, who are an Australian professional rugby club. The UFC heavyweight champion can been seen lining up one of the players for a spear onto some mats. It wasn’t some physically-exhausting drill, but Jones still put himself at risk while he should be recovering.
Check it out below:
Jon Jones hits a spear pic.twitter.com/eazmKnnUVP
— Oscar Willis (@oscarswillis) February 9, 2024
As you may have guessed, fight fans were not too happy to see Jones participating in a rugby practice when he’s supposed to be sidelined with injury. After all, Jones hasn’t defended his UFC heavyweight title since beating Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 nearly one year ago. You also have to feel bad for Aspinall, who is patiently waiting for his chance to unify the UFC heavyweight crown.
Check out some of the fan reaction below:
“Thought he was injured?”
“Shoulder is all good then?”
“Looks like he is ducking big”
“Looks like the pec and elbow are doin good huh”
“Seems ready to fight Tom Aspinall”