Mason Jones made his UFC debut in January against Mike Davis. ‘The Dragon’ gave as good as he got over the three-round fight but ultimately walked away with a unanimous decision loss which was his first taste of defeat in MMA.
The former dual-weight Cage Warriors was itching to get back in the win column and establish himself as a potential lightweight contender when he squared off against Alan Patrick back in June. Jones appeared to be on the verge of doing just that before an accidental eye-poke brought an inconclusive end to the fight.
Ahead of his rematch with Patrick next month, Jones vented to LowKickMMA about his frustrating first year in MMA’s premier promotion.
“Irritated,” Jones replied when asked to reflect on his fight with Patrick on Tuesday. “I hit my flow really quick. I felt amazing warming up and I felt amazing when we settled in (to the fight).”
The Welshman is of the belief that he “broke” his opponent in the first round and he was on the verge of a clean stoppage victory before the fight came to an unfortunate end.
“I was really gonna start unloading my combos and really start putting the pressure on,” Jones explained. “And then, obviously, the accidental eye-poke ended the fight. It irritated me because he had no intention of continuing on.”
Jones believes Patrick milked the eye-poke because he “didn’t want to be in the fight.”
“I just don’t think it was as bad as he made it out to be,” Jones said. “He was instantly (saying) ‘Oh, it’s blurry. I can’t see. I can’t continue.’ He just didn’t want to be in the fight. I controlled it all the way through. Whether he felt terrible, or I just felt really good, he just sort of decided to cut his losses and leave. For me, that’s completely alien, like, you just fight through to the last.
On October 23, Mason Jones is ready to get his long-overdue win against Patrick.
“The second or third (round),” Jones said when asked to predict how he’ll get the win against Patrick. ”Last time, I said the second round. It was more than available for me to stop him. Like I said, we were 18 seconds from the midway point (of the fight) and he was already broken. So, I could’ve stopped that in the second.”
“I’m not going to come out and just start swinging for the rafters and treating Alan like he’s a bum because Alan is a very good, high-level opponent,” Jones added. “Like, I’m not underestimating him. I’m looking at this fight as him underestimating me the last time so this fight he’s going to be stronger, he’s going to be fitter, and this fight he’s going to be a lot more dangerous. That’s the best way to look at it. I’m going to prepare for a stronger and faster Alan Patrick and it’s going to go the same way. I’m going to pick him up with my shots coming in. I’m going to hit him with some stiffs shots and I’m going to rock him and then I’m going to knock him out with a nice combo.”
Do you think Mason Jones will get his first UFC win when he rematches Alan Patrick on October 23?