By now, you’ve probably seen the video of UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones getting his left eyebrow stitched up last week, following an apparent training injury. With his UFC 178 title defense against Daniel Cormier just two months away, the release of the clip was an interesting choice, as most fighters tend not to publicly broadcast their physical vulnerabilities before fights.
“I’m gonna take u down and grind my elbow into that cut you got today,” Cormier wrote on Thursday in response. “Put a bullseye on that thing. Some things should remain private.”
So what if I told you that the video was intentionally manipulated, in an attempt to trick Cormier into targeting the wrong eye? This morning, Pedro Ivo Jr. from Portal do Vale Tudo dropped some knowledge on us via email:
Jon Jones manipulated his instagram video about the cut he suffered. You can see clearly that in one moment they are stitching the RIGHT eyebrow…and not the left. Why did he do this? It’s the same eyebrow that Gustafsson opened at [their] fight. He is trying to hide that he opened the same side.. so DC wont notice this!
And yeah, if you watch the video closely, you’ll see that the certificates on the wall behind him are displayed in reverse. Oh snap. I don’t appreciate your ruse, Jon.
By now, you’ve probably seen the video of UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones getting his left eyebrow stitched up last week, following an apparent training injury. With his UFC 178 title defense against Daniel Cormier just two months away, the release of the clip was an interesting choice, as most fighters tend not to publicly broadcast their physical vulnerabilities before fights.
“I’m gonna take u down and grind my elbow into that cut you got today,” Cormier wrote on Thursday in response. “Put a bullseye on that thing. Some things should remain private.”
So what if I told you that the video was intentionally manipulated, in an attempt to trick Cormier into targeting the wrong eye? This morning, Pedro Ivo Jr. from Portal do Vale Tudo dropped some knowledge on us via email:
Jon Jones manipulated his instagram video about the cut he suffered. You can see clearly that in one moment they are stitching the RIGHT eyebrow…and not the left. Why did he do this? It’s the same eyebrow that Gustafsson opened at [their] fight. He is trying to hide that he opened the same side.. so DC wont notice this!
And yeah, if you watch the video closely, you’ll see that the certificates on the wall behind him are displayed in reverse. Oh snap. I don’t appreciate your ruse, Jon.
Shortly afterwards, Jones decided to drop the charade, posting undoctored photos of the injury over his right eye (see here and here), but by then, the story had already been widely reported incorrectly. As of yesterday, Jones was still occasionally pretending that it was his left eyebrow that had suffered the damage, securing his reputation as MMA’s greatest Instagramtroll.
@jonnybones, really sorry for the deep cut I gave you in our last fight. At least you will have a memory from me every time someone opens it up for you. To not make your other eye jealous for not having a cut, I promise to leave a memory on that one as well next time we fight. Now, take care
If only all MMA fighters were this thoughtful and polite.
“It was something me and my management team asked for several months ago,” Jones said. “We thought it would be great to make sure everyone was playing fair in this fight. I’m not accusing my opponent of anything, but it’d just be great to see. [The Maryland State Athletic Commission] said they would need the UFC to approve it, the UFC approved it and paid for the whole thing and they never told me or Glover when our tests would come…
“I just think it’d be great to know that the athletes that are competing are competing clean,” Jones said. “I’ve never taken any kind of performance-enhancing drug and I don’t think any of my opponents should. I know that I’ve probably fought people in the past that have, and I’ve still come up with a way to win, but I just think it’s important that it goes away.
“I want our sport to be a clean sport. I want athletes to have pride and hard work and that’s why I thought I would put my money where my mouth is and get the test for myself. I have no right to accuse [Teixeira] of being on anything,” Jones said. “I know when people get chances to fight for world titles maybe they’ll do anything to get an edge, and I think the only edge you should have is work ethic so I thought we should both get tested.”
Now, in a follow-up interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Jones explained what really motivated him to request enhanced testing for this fight, and it has nothing to do with any lofty goals of cleaning up the sport. Basically, Glover Teixeira is 34 years old, he’s strong as an ox, and Jones finds that kind of suspicious:
(Jones is so committed to clean competition that he carries a bottle of fresh, hot urine with him at all times. / Photo via Getty)
“It was something me and my management team asked for several months ago,” Jones said. “We thought it would be great to make sure everyone was playing fair in this fight. I’m not accusing my opponent of anything, but it’d just be great to see. [The Maryland State Athletic Commission] said they would need the UFC to approve it, the UFC approved it and paid for the whole thing and they never told me or Glover when our tests would come…
“I just think it’d be great to know that the athletes that are competing are competing clean,” Jones said. “I’ve never taken any kind of performance-enhancing drug and I don’t think any of my opponents should. I know that I’ve probably fought people in the past that have, and I’ve still come up with a way to win, but I just think it’s important that it goes away.
“I want our sport to be a clean sport. I want athletes to have pride and hard work and that’s why I thought I would put my money where my mouth is and get the test for myself. I have no right to accuse [Teixeira] of being on anything,” Jones said. “I know when people get chances to fight for world titles maybe they’ll do anything to get an edge, and I think the only edge you should have is work ethic so I thought we should both get tested.”
Now, in a follow-up interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Jones explained what really motivated him to request enhanced testing for this fight, and it has nothing to do with any lofty goals of cleaning up the sport. Basically, Glover Teixeira is 34 years old, he’s strong as an ox, and Jones finds that kind of suspicious:
“I just thought I would have Glover tested because he’s not the youngest fighter and everyone raves about how strong he is.”
“Some fighters, you just know they’re not on anything just by looking at them. Part of (Teixeira’s) mystique is his amazing physical strength and I just questioned it. I have no reason to think he’s on steroids but I do wonder how someone can be so strong.”
“I called Dana White and said, ‘Hey, I want Glover to take steroid tests for this fight,’” Jones said. “He asked me, “What, you think he’s on steroids?’ I told him I don’t know and I have no reason to accuse him of anything but I would like to be sure.”
“Dana told me how the Georges and Johny Hendricks thing became one big cluster because Georges wanted Johny to be tested by a certain company. He recommended I not go that way and talk to the commission directly so I said, ‘OK.’ ”
Alright, so maybe this isn’t going to help his narc reputation, but if Jones wants to use his pull as champion to demand additional drug testing for title fights, how is that a bad thing? Along with the recent ban on TRT and Dana White’s claim that all UFC fighters will be drug tested on fight cards going forward, the environment for PED users is growing more hostile. Baby steps, people.
The question now, is: What happens if Teixeira tests dirty for something and has to be pulled from the card on a week’s notice? Would you draft Phil Davis into the main event, or just cancel this thing altogether?
