Jon Jones recently suffered an injury while attempting a takedown in training and he has now been forced to withdraw from his first heavyweight title-defense at UFC 295 on November 11th, 2023. He was supposed to be fighting in the main event of the night against one of the greatest heavyweight MMA fighters in the history of the sport, Stipe Miocic. Both men were removed from the card when Jones tore his pectoral muscle in training, with the fight being replaced by an interim heavyweight title-fight between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich instead.
Fans were naturally looking forward to see two of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport clashing in the octagon, but at least it appears as though the fight will be rebooked at a later date. Although Jones is one of the most well-rounded fighters to ever set foot in a cage, many people would have seen Miocic as having the advantage in striking. While that area of the fight might be one where both men would be able to find success, Jones has always been known for his fantastic wrestling in MMA. Coupled with his elite submission skills and ability to strike from top position, this is where Jones is most likely to win the fight.
It seems as though Jones was already planning on forcing Miocic to fight where would have the clearest advantage too, as he has been working on his grappling with Gordon Ryan during the lead-up to the fight. Sadly that focus on wrestling and grappling on the ground has ended up being his downfall, as it was a takedown attempt that led to Jon Jones suffering an injury. There isn’t much that could be done about this realistically, as MMA requires many explosive movements and many fighters suffer injuries in training as a result of the fact that they’re repeating these movements over and over again.
Abe Morales uploaded the footage of the takedown that caused the injury to Jon Jones in a post to his official Twitter account:
A small clip of what caused Jon Jones' injury.
Here's to a speedy recovery 🙏🏽#UFC #MMA #Boxing #UFC295 #JonJones pic.twitter.com/2pVam04zBw
— Abe (@AbeMorales209) October 25, 2023
