Jon Jones said doctors believe he may have nerve damage to his right bicep following the armbar in the very first round by challenger Vitor Belfort.
Jones headed a local hospital following the post-event news conference to get an X-ray on the injury.
“There’s no doubt that this was Jones’ best performance,” said UFC President Dana White. “He looked phenomenal tonight.
“There was a lot of questions about Jon Jones that people kept asking over and over again, no matter who he fought. No matter how good he fought. Could he take a punch? He got hit with some big punches tonight from a real puncher, and he took them. He was injured. He had the heart to keep going, and he had a great fight tonight. There can be no more naysaying about Jon Jones. You love him or you hate him … but you can’t deny that the kid is extremely talented and one of the best in the world.”
Jones said he had mentally prepared himself to lose.
“In there, I felt as if there was a point where I don’t think physically he could have extended it even more,” Jones said. “I mean, it was popping, and I felt after 25 years that I’ve never felt that feeling before. I just came to terms with what was going to happen, just thinking, ‘Man, I can’t believe I’m getting ready to lose this way.’”
However, Jones said he was not going to tap.
“I wasn’t close to tapping out at all,” said Jones. “I was ready to face the music and get it broken if I had to get it broken. I proved a lot to myself tonight and I’m grateful for it. I haven’t gotten x-rays, so I’m not going to sit here and feed into a little pain. But I’ll definitely live on to fight another day. Every time I extended my right hand or tried to use an elbow on my right side, I felt it. I felt as if I really didn’t have any power in my right side at all but it’s a long ways from my heart.”
“I had my opportunity,” said Belfort. “I think when I heard the pop, I kind of lost the pressure, and he got away. It is what it is. I thought I really had that arm, but he fought through it. He did great.”
Jones was spotted wearing a sling at Sunday’s NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots. Brother Arthur’s Ravens beat Chandlers Pat with a field goal after four hours of play.
An alert UGer noticed an anomaly in Jones’s official UFC profile, and helpfully brought it to the sport’s attention.
