#2: Jon Jones’s lucky break – UFC 159 – 04/27/13
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Usually broken bones end fights, but fortunately for Jon Jones, the referee didn’t notice him suffer quite a nasty break in his fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 159. If he had, the history books of the Light-Heavyweight division might be totally different.
Set up by Sonnen basically talking himself into the fight – and then a subsequent season of TUF built around the rivalry – Jones’s fifth title defense was seen by many fans as most likely his easiest.
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After all, Sonnen had been an 185lber for the majority of his career, and after a failed attempt at toppling Anderson Silva at Middleweight, he was seen as a fighter on the wane. Jones meanwhile looked unstoppable; he’d been cutting a swath through the 205lbs division since his 2008 debut and didn’t seem to be slowing at all.
On paper, this was about as one-sided as UFC title fights ever get.
Given Jones had a large reach advantage on Sonnen, it was surprising to see him look for the takedown in the early going – especially as Sonnen’s wrestling was his big strength. Jones was most likely looking to send a message though as he planted the challenger with a pair of early takedowns and began to work him over from the top.
So far, so good.
Although Sonnen was able to get to his feet, a slam put him back down and from there Jones seemed to be in no mood to take his time. He opened up with a vicious barrage of punches and elbows that forced referee Keith Peterson to stop the fight late in the first round.
The fight had been as one-sided as everyone had expected, but post-fight it soon emerged that it could’ve been very, very different.
During the post-fight interview, Joe Rogan pointed out that Jones had suffered an absolutely gruesome injury. The big toe on his left foot was severely broken to the point where it appeared to be almost hanging off.
It was one of the sickest visuals in MMA history.
Upon noticing the injury – which appeared to have happened as Jones shot in for the takedown, pushing his feet off the mat – Jones immediately asked for a stool to sit on. Most likely, his adrenaline was wearing off and he was heading into shock.
What would’ve been more shocking was what could’ve happened had Peterson spotted the injury, or had the round ended before the TKO. There’s no way Jones would’ve been allowed to continue with such a gory injury, and so we would’ve had UFC Light-Heavyweight champion, Chael Sonnen!
Sonnen was literally inches away from capturing UFC gold, in a fight, he never came close to truly winning. You could almost call it an unlucky break.
