Jon Jones explains the toe tape commotion moments before Ciryl Gane fight
Jon Jones' return to action at UFC 285 found its first impediment before he could even step foot into the octagon. Jones was stopped by officials for having his left foot and toe taped and was only allowed inside the cage after cutting the tape off.
It did not seem to affect Jones in the slightest as he swiftly got down to business and submitted Ciryl Gane with a guillotine choke in the very first round.
On the UFC 285 Post Show on ESPN, Jones explained the tape on his toe as a precautionary measure due to an injury he suffered years ago in his UFC 159 fight against Chael Sonnen.
“Yeah, yeah. So I broke my toe when I fought Chael Sonnen years ago and ever since then, every day I practice I tape my toe just to ensure that it doesn’t pop out again. The toe is totally fine. But every once in a while, if I pivot on it too hard, it sends the most excruciating pain up my body and I just never want to compete without my toe taped again. So hopefully, the proper people hear me and I don’t run into this issue again. ”
Jon Jones also spoke about his motivation to just get into the octagon and fight:
“I knew, being a world champion, being in my position, nothing is supposed to be easy. Baltimore Ravens, my brother Arthur taught me that you got to have skin like an armadillo. And so, I was having tape issues, said you know what, screw it, who cares. Nothing’s going to stop me, I want to be in there. It’s time for me to eat. So they cut the rest of the tape off my foot, they left my toe taped. It was awesome.”
Check out his comments on YouTube:
Check out his injury against Chael Sonnen below:
Francis Ngannou reacts to Jon Jones winning the heavyweight title
Former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou left the UFC and vacated his title for Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane to materialize. The Cameroonian fighter has continually asserted that he remains the undisputed champion as he never lost his belt inside the octagon.
After Jones became just the eighth fighter in history to be a champion in two divisions, Ngannou took to Twitter to congratulate him but added his own proclamation as part of the salutation.
Ngannou wrote:
"Good job Jonny Boy [thumbs up sign emoji] Sincerely, The heavyweight king"
Check out his tweet below:
Good job Jonny Boy 👍
Sincerely,
The heavyweight king
Jon Jones has not yet responded to the former heavyweight champion but expect him to retort once his celebrations conclude.