Jon Jones returns to UFC with a five round decision; Wins Interim Belt

April 25, 2016

UFC 197 was supposed to be a clash between Light heavyweight titans.  Instead, fans were treated to a Jon Jones return to UFC in the form of a warmup.  No disrespect to Ovince-Saint Preux, the number six ranked Light Heavyweight, that wasn't the planned fight for a reason.  Saint Preux stepped in following a Daniel Cormier leg injury less than a month before the scheduled pay-per-view.  Jones, desperately needing to get a UFC fight back under his belt, continued with the replacement matchup.  Jones won by a unanimous decision, taking down Saint-Preux quite a few times.  Jones is so talented, that even rusty and ill-prepared he can dominate a top ten ranked fighter in his weight class.

Jon Jones (22-1*) showed rust in his return to the octagon, having spent over a year away the canvas due to his DUI and hit and run suspension.  His return is a bittersweet one for the UFC organization.  President Dana White has said on record many times that Jones is a troubled young man who needs guidance.  Despite that, he's probably happy to see the number one pound for pound fighter back in his company.  After all, Jones was the youngest person to win a UFC title, having defeated Shogun Rua for a title at UFC 127 in 2011.

Jones has only one loss in his career.  He took it via disqualification for an illegal downward use of the 12-6 elbow in 2009 against Matt Hamil.  This is a type of elbow strike which UFC commentator Joe Rogan believes should be allowed because it is,"no different than any other type of elbow."  Besides that, Jones has no true losses.  He has the potential to go down as the greatest fighter of all time if he can continue to dominate in his return to the sport.

He can chalk this one up to practice.  He will next fight Cormier in UFC 200 and try to reclaim the belt he was stripped of.  Jones defeated Cormier via a unanimous decision in January, 2015.  This time when they meet, Cormier is the incumbent champ.