Jon Jones suffered a compound fracture of his big toe, but still somehow managed to defend his title.
The UFC light heavyweight champion beat Chael Sonnen by TKO at 4:33 of the first round Saturday night at UFC 159 at Prudential Center in Newark. About midway through, Jones’ left big toe snapped while he was going for a takedown.
The 25-year-old from upstate Ithaca said he “felt a pop” and that it seemed like “there was a small hole in the canvas.” But it didn’t deter him from pounding Sonnen for another two minutes. Jones finished things with nasty ground and pound — punches and elbows from top position against the cage.
When the referee stepped in to stop the fight, Jones sprang up and did his trademark cartwheel celebration. It wasn’t until afterward, when his hand was being raised, that he noticed the ugly break.
“I saw my toe was almost upside down,” Jones said.
Had Sonnen lasted another 27 seconds, he would have become champion. If Jones went back to his corner after the first round with a broken toe, doctors would have stopped the fight immediately and awarded Sonnen a TKO victory. Sonnen said that’s not how he would have wanted to win the title.
“That would have been horrible,” UFC president Dana White said.
Luckily for everyone involved it didn’t turn out that way. With the win, Jones tied Tito Ortiz’s record of five light heavyweight title defenses. Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history two years ago in this building when he beat Mauricio Rua at age 23.
White believes Jones is already the best 205-pound fighter in UFC history and puts him only behind Anderson Silva on the mythical pound-for-pound list. Jones is with White on that assessment – he still sees Silva as top dog, because he’s held the middleweight title since 2006 with a record 10 defenses.
“That’s phenomenal pressure he’s been able to uphold,” Jones said of Silva. … “I admire him so much. He’s still my idol.”
Sonnen disagrees. He’s lost to Silva twice and the first time Sonnen was winning until Silva pulled off a shocking submission in the fifth round. Jones ran right through Sonnen on Saturday night. There was no drama.
“I don’t think I’ve been taken down three times in my career and I was taken down three times in the first round tonight,” Sonnen said. … “If you’re asking me my opinion, Jon’s better [than Silva].”
Add in the fact that Jones destroyed Sonnen with a grossly broken toe and it’s even more impressive.
