Despite initial assumptions that Jon Jones suffered a compound fracture of his left big toe during his UFC 159 title defense against Chael Sonnen, the injury was later determined to be a dislocation. (You know, kind of like how Miesha Tate didn’t actually get her arm snapped in half by Ronda Rousey, despite all visual evidence to the contrary.) Dr. Robert Klapper, Chief Orthopedic Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, appeared on yesterday’s installment of UFC Tonight to explain Jones’s injury, and give his insight on the recovery process, which doesn’t sound so bad, considering how ugly things looked on Saturday.
“The rehab involves, number one, you put [the toe] back into place,” Klapper said. “Line it up again. Wash out the joint because there’s lots of bad bacteria on that mat, and you need to make sure there’s no infection. The rehabilitation is just let things scar down, which they will. Because there’s no fracture of the bone — it’s just a dislocation — in six weeks it’s healed, then you start range of motion and strengthening. Back to fighting, six to eight weeks.”
Despite initial assumptions that Jon Jones suffered a compound fracture of his left big toe during his UFC 159 title defense against Chael Sonnen, the injury was later determined to be a dislocation. (You know, kind of like how Miesha Tate didn’t actually get her arm snapped in half by Ronda Rousey, despite all visual evidence to the contrary.) Dr. Robert Klapper, Chief Orthopedic Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, appeared on yesterday’s installment of UFC Tonight to explain Jones’s injury, and give his insight on the recovery process, which doesn’t sound so bad, considering how ugly things looked on Saturday.
“The rehab involves, number one, you put [the toe] back into place,” Klapper said. “Line it up again. Wash out the joint because there’s lots of bad bacteria on that mat, and you need to make sure there’s no infection. The rehabilitation is just let things scar down, which they will. Because there’s no fracture of the bone — it’s just a dislocation — in six weeks it’s healed, then you start range of motion and strengthening. Back to fighting, six to eight weeks.”
For a card that featured a nearly-severed toe and two technical decisions due to eye-pokes, hearing the voice of Satan during the UFC 159 broadcast fit in perfectly with the “Cursed” theme of the night. That eerie, disembodied voice — which seemed to say “Jerry Rips!”, whatever that means — popped up twice (if I recall correctly), most notably during the Bisping/Belcher fight. The next day, a YouTube user calling itself Jerry Rips uploaded this compilation of strange audio from the event, some of which you heard and some of which you definitely weren’t supposed to hear.
Did this Jerry Rips fellow hack into the event audio, and has he released this video as a showcase of his work? And what does Jerry Rips want from us? Should I sacrifice a dog to to His Dark Name just in case? Because I’m totally prepared to sacrifice a dog at this point. Check out the video above before it gets inevitably pulled. Here’s the rundown, from the video description:
00:00 – Hot mic catches event staff calling UFC gay 00:59 – Don’t boo Sara McMann 01:12 – ELBOWS 01:38 – Same event staff give their thoughts on chick fights 01:59 – Sheila Gaff flashing in the cage 02:02 – Michael Bisping hypes himself up backstage, talks shit on Belcher 02:33 – Bisping doesn’t want any fucking water 02:42 – Don’t make eye contact with Johnny Cash 03:00 – Jerry Rips debuts 03:06 – Jon Jones prays for unfair advantage before his fight 03:53 – Greg Jackson talks to Jon after the fight 04:27 – Jon Jones notices his broken toe
For a card that featured a nearly-severed toe and two technical decisions due to eye-pokes, hearing the voice of Satan during the UFC 159 broadcast fit in perfectly with the “Cursed” theme of the night. That eerie, disembodied voice — which seemed to say “Jerry Rips!”, whatever that means — popped up twice (if I recall correctly), most notably during the Bisping/Belcher fight. The next day, a YouTube user calling itself Jerry Rips uploaded this compilation of strange audio from the event, some of which you heard and some of which you definitely weren’t supposed to hear.
Did this Jerry Rips fellow hack into the event audio, and has he released this video as a showcase of his work? And what does Jerry Rips want from us? Should I sacrifice a dog to to His Dark Name just in case? Because I’m totally prepared to sacrifice a dog at this point. Check out the video above before it gets inevitably pulled. Here’s the rundown, from the video description:
00:00 – Hot mic catches event staff calling UFC gay 00:59 – Don’t boo Sara McMann 01:12 – ELBOWS 01:38 – Same event staff give their thoughts on chick fights 01:59 – Sheila Gaff flashing in the cage 02:02 – Michael Bisping hypes himself up backstage, talks shit on Belcher 02:33 – Bisping doesn’t want any fucking water 02:42 – Don’t make eye contact with Johnny Cash 03:00 – Jerry Rips debuts 03:06 – Jon Jones prays for unfair advantage before his fight 03:53 – Greg Jackson talks to Jon after the fight 04:27 – Jon Jones notices his broken toe
UFC 159 proved wrong those who said light heavyweight champion Jon Jones would not face adversity before the night was over. The champion did indeed face pain and difficulty Saturday night – it just came after his main event title defense against Chael Sonnen, not during it.
Jones appeared to have no trouble at all taking down Sonnen three times in under a round and then bloodying and stopping the challenger. He celebrated with coaches, smiled wide and even threw in a little show-boating shadow kickboxing right before television analyst Joe Rogan interviewed him.
That’s when Jones, his belt once more fastened around his waist, looked down and first saw that his left big toe was mangled, broken and, perhaps falling off of his foot. The visage of his disgustingly broken toe (photos after the jump) seemed to shock, disturb and nauseate “Bones” but he got a stool, gritted his teeth and soldiered through the interview while doctors worked on the nasty crap going on below the camera’s frame.
As the adrenaline wore off and he saw the damage done, Jones must have begun to feel the pain. He might miss his planned Jamaican vacation, he said, but dammed if Jones wouldn’t go above and beyond with his press duties. Before the fight, idiots in the media criticized Jones for wanting to fight more than wanting to talk (gasp) in the days leading up to UFC 159.
As the night came to a close, however, Jones showed one more way that he could out-Sonnen, Sonnen. You can wrestle, Chael? Fine. I can do it better.
You can talk, Chael? Sure. So can I, and right after whooping you and with a bone sticking out of my foot.
UFC 159 proved wrong those who said light heavyweight champion Jon Jones would not face adversity before the night was over. The champion did indeed face pain and difficulty Saturday night — it just came after his main event title defense against Chael Sonnen, not during it.
Jones appeared to have no trouble at all taking down Sonnen three times in under a round and then bloodying and stopping the challenger. He celebrated with coaches, smiled wide and even threw in a little show-boating shadow kickboxing right before television analyst Joe Rogan interviewed him.
That’s when Jones, his belt once more fastened around his waist, looked down and first saw that his left big toe was mangled, broken and, perhaps falling off of his foot. The visage of his disgustingly broken toe (photos after the jump) seemed to shock, disturb and nauseate “Bones” but he got a stool, gritted his teeth and soldiered through the interview while doctors worked on the nasty crap going on below the camera’s frame.
As the adrenaline wore off and he saw the damage done, Jones must have begun to feel the pain. He might miss his planned Jamaican vacation, he said, but dammed if Jones wouldn’t go above and beyond with his press duties. Before the fight, idiots in the media criticized Jones for wanting to fight more than wanting to talk (gasp) in the days leading up to UFC 159.
As the night came to a close, however, Jones showed one more way that he could out-Sonnen, Sonnen. You can wrestle, Chael? Fine. I can do it better.
You can talk, Chael? Sure. So can I, and right after whooping you and with a bone sticking out of my foot.
It’s almost unfair to write about the light-heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen from last night’s UFC 159 right now, since we won’t know whether or not this fight delivered what it was supposed to for a long time. I’m not writing about the way that Jon Jones effortlessly defeated Chael Sonnen; we knew Sonnen was absolutely no threat to the light-heavyweight kingpin. I’m not writing about how Jones completely ignored his vastly superior striking and ridiculous reach advantage in order defeat “the gangster from West Linn” by impersonating him; we sort-of predicted that Jones would clown his way through this fight. We knew that the main event was going to deliver a lopsided beat-down. It’s yet to be seen how – or even if – the marketability of Jon Jones will benefit as a result.
That being said, it’s hard to expect the superfight we never asked for to have much of an effect on the way that fans perceive Jones. I didn’t think it was possible to feel as apathetic about a first round knockout as I felt after last night’s main event. Judging by the comments I’ve read on our liveblog, I’m hardly alone here. When it was over, the match felt more like a bad professional wrestling storyline than a UFC pay-per-view main event, and the outcome felt just as forced.
Yep. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)
It’s almost unfair to write about the light-heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen from last night’s UFC 159 right now, since we won’t know whether or not this fight delivered what it was supposed to for a long time. I’m not writing about the way that Jon Jones effortlessly defeated Chael Sonnen; we knew Sonnen was absolutely no threat to the light-heavyweight kingpin. I’m not writing about how Jones completely ignored his vastly superior striking and ridiculous reach advantage in order defeat “the gangster from West Linn” by impersonating him; we sort-of predicted that Jones would clown his way through this fight. We knew that the main event was going to deliver a lopsided beat-down. It’s yet to be seen how – or even if – the marketability of Jon Jones will benefit as a result.
That being said, it’s hard to expect the superfight we never asked for to have much of an effect on the way that fans perceive Jones. I didn’t think it was possible to feel as apathetic about a first round knockout as I felt after last night’s main event. Judging by the comments I’ve read on our liveblog, I’m hardly alone here. When it was over, the match felt more like a bad professional wrestling storyline than a UFC pay-per-view main event, and the outcome felt just as forced.
It’s common in professional wrestling to take an extremely talented, yet laughably uncharismatic grappler who struggles to connect with the fans, match him up against a natural heel with the gift of the gab and have the heel irritate fans with his outlandish behavior to the point that they’ll cheer on his opponents by default. This is done under the assumption that when the champion defeats the heel, he’ll reach a new level of respect among the fans. The thing is, this tactic only works when the guy annoying everyone is actually perceived as a legitimate threat to the champion. Chael Sonnen – an aging middleweight also-ran coming off of a loss in his last fight – never had this going for him; something that even the UFC seemed to openly acknowledge. As we saw last night, when the challenger is more of a nuisance than a contender, it’s hard to feel too enthusiastic about the champion’s victory.
And as for Chael Sonnen? How serious he is about retirement will probably depend on whether or not he can talk his way into another high-profile bout. If he can line one up, then don’t be surprised to see him back in the cage. If not, he may very well decide to hang up the gloves for good. Immediate announcements of retirement after a loss in this sport are rarely permanent. I doubt that will change when someone as unpredictable as Chael Sonnen is involved.
Now that we’ve told you what to think about tomorrow night’s fights, it’s time to watch the competitors hit the scale, and laugh at them if anybody misses weight. Will Michael Bisping angrily point at Alan Belcher while swearing at him? (Yes.) Will Chael Sonnenleave Bones hanging again? (Probably not.) Does Sara McMann need a Band-Aid? (Wait for it.) Because her abs are friggin’ cut. (BOOM.) Watch the UFC 159 weigh-in action in the player above starting at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, and take a peek after the jump for full results, which will be updated immediately afterwards.
Now that we’ve told you what to think about tomorrow night’s fights, it’s time to watch the competitors hit the scale, and laugh at them if anybody misses weight. Will Michael Bisping angrily point at Alan Belcher while swearing at him? (Yes.) Will Chael Sonnenleave Bones hanging again? (Probably not.) Does Sara McMann need a Band-Aid? (Wait for it.) Because her abs are friggin’ cut. (BOOM.) Watch the UFC 159 weigh-in action in the player above starting at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, and take a peek after the jump for full results, which will be updated immediately afterwards.
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Jon Jones (205) vs. Chael Sonnen (205)
Michael Bisping (186) vs. Alan Belcher (185)
Roy Nelson (258) vs. Cheick Kongo (237)
Phil Davis (205) vs. Vinny Magalhaes (205.5 )
Jim Miller (155) vs. Pat Healy (155.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)
Johnny Bedford (136) vs. Bryan Caraway (136)
Ovince St. Preux (206) vs. Gian Villante (206)
Sara McMann (134) vs. Sheila Gaff (133)
Rustam Khabilov (156) vs. Yancy Medeiros (155.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6:30 p.m. ET)
Leonard Garcia (145) vs. Cody McKenzie (145)
Nick Catone (173)* vs. James Head (170.25)
Kurt Holobaugh (145) vs. Steven Siler (145.25)
* Catone will not weigh-in again. He has been fined 20% of his purse, which will go to Head.
