Tag: Jon Jones vs. Brock Lesnar

Jon Jones Opens Up On Potential Fight With Brock Lesnar

Jon Jones opens up on a potential showdown against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. This is a fight that some believed could’ve happened if Jones didn’t pop for a failed drug test following the UFC 214 PPV event. Back in June, UFC President Dana White told TMZ Sports that both former champions were interested […]

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Jon Jones opens up on a potential showdown against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. This is a fight that some believed could’ve happened if Jones didn’t pop for a failed drug test following the UFC 214 PPV event.

Back in June, UFC President Dana White told TMZ Sports that both former champions were interested in fighting each other. This led to early betting odds being released as it listed Jones as the -350 favorite to beat Lesnar, who is favored at +260.

Obviously, that fight never got booked and Jones will make his return to the Octagon shortly. He’s slated to take on Alexander Gustafsson for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title in the headliner of UFC 232.

While doing a recent interview to promote this fight, the former champion commented on this possibility.

The Fight

“Fighting Brock Lesnar is always appealing,” said Jones on the UFC 232 conference call (H/T to MMAFighting). “That’s a win-win situation. That’s a huge money fight and that’s me fighting a guy who’s a hell of a lot bigger than me and everyone wins in that situation.

“I win because of the courage it takes to step in there against a guy who’s way bigger than you. I win because of the pay-per-view that will follow. The fans will win. It would be great for the sport and it’d be good for everyone involved. So I’m totally up for that.”

The UFC 232 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, December 29, 2018 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

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UFC Rankings Update: Jon Jones Gets Removed – Again

Although last weekend’s (Sat., September 9, 2017) UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton provided a decent rankings shake-up for the UFC in its own right, the biggest MMA news of the week has obviously been fixated on the disappointing saga of former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and his UFC 214 drug test failure. […]

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Although last weekend’s (Sat., September 9, 2017) UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton provided a decent rankings shake-up for the UFC in its own right, the biggest MMA news of the week has obviously been fixated on the disappointing saga of former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and his UFC 214 drug test failure.

News first arrived that Jones’ third-round knockout win over Cormier at UFC 214 had been overturned to a no-contest, which lead to Jones being stripped of the title while Cormier was reinstated. So as expected, Jones has now been removed from the official UFC rankings, where he was previously dropped below Demetrious Johnson and Conor McGregor on the pound-for-pound list while the results of his B-sample were awaited.

He failed for anabolic steroid turinabol in the second test, too, and has now been removed from the pound-and-for-pound and light heavyweight ranks.

In terms of actual fighting, Rafael dos Anjos rose an amazing five spots at welterweight for his dominant submission over Neil Magny at UFC 215, while Ketlen Vieira almost duplicated that, moving up four spots to No. 9 for her submission win over the formerly surging veteran Sara McMann. Robbie Lawler also moved into a tie with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at welterweights top spot.

Here are the full updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Stipe Miocic +1
4 Max Holloway +1
5 Cody Garbrandt +1
6 Daniel Cormier +1
7 Joanna Jedrzejczyk +1
8 Tyron Woodley +1
9 Dominick Cruz +1
10 Jose Aldo +2
11 Michael Bisping
12 Cris Cyborg +1
13 Robert Whittaker +1
14 Amanda Nunes +1
15 TJ Dillashaw *NR

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Sergio Pettis
5 Jussier Formiga +1
6 Wilson Reis -1
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Tim Elliott
10 John Moraga
11 Dustin Ortiz
12 Ian McCall
13 Alexandre Pantoja
14 Louis Smolka
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Cody Garbrandt
1 Dominick Cruz
2 TJ Dillashaw
3 Jimmie Rivera
4 Raphael Assuncao
5 John Lineker
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Aljamain Sterling
8 John Dodson
9 Thomas Almeida
10 Marlon Moraes
11 Eddie Wineland
12 Pedro Munhoz
13 Rob Font
14 Matthew Lopez
15 Johnny Eduardo

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Evan Dunham +1
15 Mairbek Taisumov *NR

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion : Tyron Woodley
1 Robbie Lawler +1
1 Stephen Thompson
3 Demian Maia
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Rafael Dos Anjos +5
6 Donald Cerrone
7 Carlos Condit -2
8 Colby Covington
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
9 Neil Magny -3
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Dong Hyun Kim
13 Kamaru Usman
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Tarec Saffiedine

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Anderson Silva
7 Derek Brunson
8 Kelvin Gastelum
9 David Branch
10 Krzysztof Jotko
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Thales Leites
13 Tim Boetsch
14 Uriah Hall
15 Thiago Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
0 Daniel Cormier +1
1 Alexander Gustafsson +1
2 Volkan Oezdemir +1
3 Glover Teixeira +1
4 Jimi Manuwa +1
5 Mauricio Rua +1
6 Ovince Saint Preux +1
7 Corey Anderson +1
8 Misha Cirkunov +1
9 Ilir Latifi +1
10 Rogerio Nogueira +1
11 Patrick Cummins +1
12 Gadzhimurad Antigulov +3
13 Gian Villante +1
14 Tyson Pedro -1

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Aleksei Oleinik
10 Stefan Struve
11 Andrei Arlovski
12 Junior Albini
13 Curtis Blaydes
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion : Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Jessica Andrade
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Cynthia Calvillo +1
8 Carla Esparza -1
9 Felice Herrig
10 Paige VanZant
11 Cortney Casey +1
11 Alexa Grasso +2
13 Joanne Calderwood -2
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington +1
5 Ronda Rousey -1
6 Cat Zingano +1
7 Sara McMann -1
8 Germaine de Randamie
9 Ketlen Vieira +4
10 Liz Carmouche -1
10 Alexis Davis
12 Marion Reneau -1
13 Katlyn Chookagian -1
14 Bethe Correia
15 Leslie Smith *NR

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UFC Reinstates Daniel Cormier As Light Heavyweight Champ

Well, that didn’t take long. Hours after Jon Jones’ third-round knockout win over Daniel Cormier in the main event of July 29’s UFC 214 was changed to a no-contest due to Jones failing a drug test for turinabol, the UFC has officially reinstated “DC” as the official champion. Cormier revealed that he had spoken with UFC […]

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Well, that didn’t take long.

Hours after Jon Jones’ third-round knockout win over Daniel Cormier in the main event of July 29’s UFC 214 was changed to a no-contest due to Jones failing a drug test for turinabol, the UFC has officially reinstated “DC” as the official champion.

Cormier revealed that he had spoken with UFC president Dana White and he informed he had been reinstated as the champ during tonight’s episode of UFC Tonight, which he co-hosts:

“If it’s a no contest, then the fight didn’t happen,” Cormier said. “[White] said, ‘If one of you guys would have missed weight, he would have won the fight, but you still would have kept the belt. Because of that, the championship is getting returned to you.’ The fight is a no contest. If he cheated, he could not have fought and cheated and still won the fight.

“Once again, I’m the UFC champion.”

The UFC also confirmed that news on their official website, releasing an official statement on the division:

“UFC was informed Wednesday that the result of the UFC 214 bout between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier on July 29 was overturned by the California State Athletic Commission. The ruling changes the Jones ‘win’ to a ‘no contest’ following a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an in-competition sample collected after Jones’ weigh-in on July 28, 2017.

As this was a title bout, Cormier will be reinstated as UFC light heavyweight champion.”

Cormier first won the title when Jones was pulled from his scheduled bout with Anthony Johnson at 2015’s UFC 187 months after Jones had beaten Cormier by decision at UFC 182 that January. The trouble-making UFC great was arrested for hitting a 25-year-old pregnant woman, putting him on the sidelines until he returned in a lackluster victory over Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197.

He was then set to take on Cormier at UFC 200 in July 2016, but a failed USADA drug test for banned substances clomiphene and letrozole for which he was suspended for a year and only returned from to defeat Cormier at UFC 214.

The once and now-current champ Cormier knows he’s going to be called a “paper champ” just as he was during his entire reign, and he never beat Jones. But he’s ready for it, and he stated he’d be foolish to turn down the championship payday if he would be fighting for the championship anyway.

In his eyes, it’s Jones who cheated the fans, so giving him the championship back is the only right thing to do:

“People will say stuff like, well you got handed the belt,” Cormier said. “He cheated and the reality is for me to say, ‘I don’t want this title,’ when I was gonna be in a championship fight anyway, financially it’s just a big difference if I don’t fight as the champion as opposed to fighting for the title.

“He disqualified himself for taking a steroid before the fight, so it didn’t happen,” Cormier said. “So now I get the belt back, which is the right thing to do. And I’m not only saying that because it’s me. It’s the right thing to do. You don’t cheat the sport, you don’t cheat the fans, you don’t cheat me. You have all the physical advantages, sir. You’re 30 years old, you’re 6-4, you’ve got an 85-inch reach. I’m 38 years old. I would love to take stuff and not have to wake up every morning and walk down my stairs sideways.”

Finally, Cormier put it in concise terms, noting that he and Jones had one of the biggest bouts of 2017, but Jones had messed it up again:

“We had one of the biggest fights of the year,” Cormier said. “Once again, this guy has made a mockery of the sport.”

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Twitter Reacts To Jon Jones’ Failed B-Sample

Last night (Tues., September 12, 2017) news arrived that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ B-sample of his failed UFC 214 drug test for Turinabol had also come back positive for the same banned substance, seriously putting the supremely talented but oft-troubled MMA legend’s career in doubt. The confirmation of the failed test coupled with […]

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Last night (Tues., September 12, 2017) news arrived that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ B-sample of his failed UFC 214 drug test for Turinabol had also come back positive for the same banned substance, seriously putting the supremely talented but oft-troubled MMA legend’s career in doubt.

The confirmation of the failed test coupled with the original news and his previous issues with both performance-enhancing substances and drugs of abuse has understandably lead to a sizable backlash against “Bones,” whom many feel cheated the system as he threw his entire legacy into question.

Jones is, of course, owed the full due process, and his team is not surprisingly claiming it was another tainted supplement that was the culprit. While that seems to be unlikely given his sordid history of drug issues, the legal system must be given its chance to play out fairly. But that doesn’t mean that several of Jones peers aren’t going to blast him on social media, and many fighters hopped online to express their disappointment at a man who not even two months ago was being heralded as the greatest of all time.

Check out what the MMA world had to say about Jones’ confirmed B-sample right via MMA Junkie here:

Game. Set. Match. ???? via @mmaworld Jon Jones ‘B’ sample comes back positive for steroid. #mma #ufc

A post shared by Brendan Schaub (@brendanschaub) on

Well #damn The #verdict is in. #UFC #MMA #Fight #Fighter #Fighting

A post shared by Ben Saunders (@bensaundersmma) on

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UFC Rankings Update: Jones’ Latest Mishap Forces Drop

All of the media members who immediately voted embattled UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones back into the top pound-for-pound following his win over Daniel Cormier in July have apparently rethought that position in the weeks after his shocking USADA drug test failure for anabolic steroid Turinabol during the bout. That’s the case in this […]

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All of the media members who immediately voted embattled UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones back into the top pound-for-pound following his win over Daniel Cormier in July have apparently rethought that position in the weeks after his shocking USADA drug test failure for anabolic steroid Turinabol during the bout.

That’s the case in this week’s official UFC rankings update, where “Bones” fell two spots down the pound-for-pound list to No. 3, moving decorated flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, who will face Ray Borg in an attempt to set the UFC’s all-time record for title defenses in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., September 9, 2017) UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, into the top spot and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, who needs no such introduction even though he’s 2-2 in his last four combat sports bouts.

The only division that saw significant movement this week was heavyweight, where Nos. 4-7 fighters Francis Ngannou, Mark Hunt, Derrick Lewis, and Alexander Volkov all moved up one spot. Volkov stopped longtime UFC mainstay Stefan Struve in the main event of last Saturday’s UFC Rotterdam, sending “the Skyscraper” down a spot to No. 10.

Check out the full updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson +1
2 Conor McGregor +1
3 Jon Jones -2
4 Stipe Miocic
5 Max Holloway
6 Cody Garbrandt
7 Daniel Cormier
8 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
9 Tyron Woodley
10 Dominick Cruz
11 Michael Bisping
12 Jose Aldo
13 Cris Cyborg
14 Robert Whittaker +1
15 Amanda Nunes -1

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Sergio Pettis
5 Wilson Reis -1
6 Jussier Formiga
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Tim Elliott
10 John Moraga
11 Dustin Ortiz
12 Ian McCall
13 Alexandre Pantoja
14 Louis Smolka
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Cody Garbrandt
1 Dominick Cruz
2 TJ Dillashaw
3 Jimmie Rivera
4 Raphael Assuncao
5 John Lineker
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Aljamain Sterling
8 John Dodson
9 Thomas Almeida
10 Marlon Moraes
11 Eddie Wineland
12 Pedro Munhoz
13 Rob Font
14 Matthew Lopez
15 Johnny Eduardo

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Gilbert Melendez +1
15 Evan Dunham -1

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Robbie Lawler
3 Demian Maia
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Carlos Condit
6 Donald Cerrone
6 Neil Magny
8 Colby Covington
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Rafael Dos Anjos
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Dong Hyun Kim
13 Kamaru Usman
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Tarec Saffiedine

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Anderson Silva
7 Derek Brunson
8 Kelvin Gastelum
9 David Branch
10 Krzysztof Jotko
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Thales Leites
13 Tim Boetsch
14 Uriah Hall
15 Thiago Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Jon Jones
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Volkan Oezdemir
4 Glover Teixeira
5 Jimi Manuwa
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Ovince Saint Preux
8 Corey Anderson
9 Misha Cirkunov
10 Ilir Latifi
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Patrick Cummins
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Gian Villante
15 Gadzhimurad Antigulov

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Francis Ngannou +1
5 Mark Hunt +1
6 Derrick Lewis +1
7 Alexander Volkov +1
8 Marcin Tybura +2
9 Aleksei Oleinik +2
10 Stefan Struve -1
11 Andrei Arlovski +1
12 Junior Albini +1
13 Curtis Blaydes +2
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson *NR

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Jessica Andrade
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Carla Esparza
8 Cynthia Calvillo
9 Felice Herrig
10 Paige VanZant
11 Joanne Calderwood
12 Cortney Casey
13 Alexa Grasso
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Ronda Rousey
5 Raquel Pennington
6 Sara McMann
7 Cat Zingano
8 Germaine de Randamie
9 Liz Carmouche
10 Alexis Davis
11 Marion Reneau
12 Katlyn Chookagian
13 Ketlen Vieira
14 Bethe Correia
15 Ashlee Evans-Smith *NR

 

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Jon Jones Passed Blood Test Hours After UFC 214

Those predicting Jon Jones’ demise in MMA may have to wait a little. According to Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, the embattled UFC light heavyweight champion, who tested positive for anabolic steroid Turinabol the day before his UFC 214 knockout win over Daniel Cormier, reportedly passed a blood test from USADA in the hours after […]

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Those predicting Jon Jones’ demise in MMA may have to wait a little.

According to Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, the embattled UFC light heavyweight champion, who tested positive for anabolic steroid Turinabol the day before his UFC 214 knockout win over Daniel Cormier, reportedly passed a blood test from USADA in the hours after the event from Anaheim, California.

That means Jones tested negative one day after he failed the steroid on July 28, the day of weigh-ins for his bout versus Cormier. However, it has to be noted blood screenings do not test for Turinabol, begging the question as to exactly what USADA would be looking for if it was not anabolic steroids.

Jones also passed out-of-competition drug screens on July 6 and July 7, with negative results in a blood and urine screen on July 6 and the same for a urine screen on July 7. He reportedly passed seven drug tests leading up to his comeback as well.

Jones is awaiting full due process for his latest drug-related mishap, which occurred only weeks after a previous one-year suspension for testing positive for Clomiphene and Letrozol three days before his scheduled UFC 200 rematch with Cormier. He blamed a male sexual enhancement pill for the failed test but was suspended nonetheless.

Of course, it was only the most recent head-scratching instance of outside-the-cage trouble for Jones, whose laundry list of drug-related troubles have taken on a life of their own and need not be listed here in full yet again. Still, Jones’ team has encouraged his fans to let the full process play out, claiming that a tainted supplement was again the cause of Jones’ positive test.

It’s tough to give him any credit at the current moment based on his extreme propensity for screwing up unnecessarily while simultaneously being the most talented fighter the UFC has ever seen, but if we’ve learned anything about Jones’ seemingly endless mess-ups in the past, he can rebound from them like few mortals could.

The whole scene is strange, and the state athletic director where UFC 214 took place even admitted as much. Perhaps there’s something to Jones’ manager’s insistence.

We’ll keep you posted as always.

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