Then-UFC mild heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones’s showdown with Vitor Belfort handed the MMA legend one of many uncommon circumstances of adversity of his profession.
Earlier than changing into the UFC’s lineal heavyweight champion, Jon Jones made himself right into a legend within the mild heavyweight division. Throughout his first UFC mild heavyweight title reign, Jones turned away fellow legends like Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, and Lyoto Machida.
Jones, who grew to become the UFC’s youngest-ever champion when he knocked out Shogun Rua at UFC 128, welcomed a former mild heavyweight champ again to the division when he confronted Vitor Belfort at UFC 152. Belfort earned the title shot by incomes back-to-back wins over Anthony Johnson and Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Belfort almost took Jones’s arm, and the champion’s belt, in Toronto.
Jon Jones overcame mid-fight arm harm to submit Vitor Belfort in gritty title combat
Jones rapidly put Belfort on the again foot within the opening seconds of the primary spherical, and tried a single-leg takedown earlier than getting Belfort to the canvas off of a visit. With Jones in prime mount, Belfort tried a determined armbar submission from the underside, which had the sunshine heavyweight champion in serious trouble.
Jones’s arm visibly hyperextended when Belfort tried the first-round armbar, and Jones used Belfort like a pogo-stick to interrupt his compromised arm free. He efficiently bought out of it, and proceeded to punish Belfort with devastating elbows.
After a chaotic Spherical 1, Jones went to work in Rounds 2 and three, touchdown an arsenal of assaults on the MMA legend Belfort. A spinning elbow from Jones opened up a nasty gash on Belfort’s head, which almost pressured the cageside physician to wave off the combat.
In Spherical 4, with a compromised proper arm, Jones submitted Belfort with an Americana to retain his mild heavyweight throne. It was one of many wildest come-from-behind wins in UFC mild heavyweight historical past.
Watch Jones sink within the fight-winning submission beneath.
Jones left UFC 152 along with his mild heavyweight belt, but additionally left the Octagon with an injured elbow as a result of early armbar try. Jones had to have surgery to remove bone spurs from the beforehand injured elbow earlier than his combat with Stipe Miocic at UFC 309.
Jon Jones continues to irk UFC followers with Tom Aspinall combat flip-flops
Quick ahead to 2025, and UFC followers are hopeful Jones will return for not less than yet one more combat to tackle interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall. The 2 sides have been in talks with the UFC since November, and Aspinall is changing into more and more impatient with Jones’s repeated delays.
Jones has floated retirement in latest weeks, and requires the UFC to strip Jones of the heavyweight belt have skyrocketed. A petition calling for the UFC to take motion towards Jones is approaching 200,000 signatures.
Belfort will enter the UFC Hall of Fame this summer season alongside Amanda Nunes, Mark Kerr, and Robbie Lawler. He retired from MMA after a knockout loss to Machida at UFC 224.
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