Jon Jones: I Won Decisively Against Gustafsson Even Though I Was Only At Seventy Percent

UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones went through a war last Saturday night against Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of UFC 165 from Toronto. It ended with a somewhat controversial decision that had tons of supporters on both sides of the fence.

There are still a ton of details to clear up about Jones’ next move while he heals up from the epic battle. However, Jones spoke with Ariel Helwani, who revealed on tonight’s edition of “UFC Tonight” that Jones did not suffer a broken foot as was speculated against Gustafsson:

“He told me he did not break his left foot. His team was worried that he may have broken it early in the fight, but doctors just told him, ‘No break, just a deep bruise.’ In a few weeks or so he should be good to go.”

Most MMA fans believed that ‘The Mauler’ had done more than enough to warrant an immediate rematch with Jones, and Dana White has repeatedly discussed that possibility in the days since the fight. However, Jones doesn’t agree with this belief, and may go a different direction for his next fight:

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“Initially before watching the fight, he thought that the most fair thing to do would be to grant Alexander Gustafsson an immediate rematch. It was such a close fight. But after watching it over ten times, he believes that he decisively won round 2, round 4, and round 5, maybe even round one. So now he thinks because it was so clear-cut that the most fair thing to do would be to grant the next contender a title shot. “

Not only does he believe he won without controversy, but ‘Bones’ reported to Helwani that he wasn’t his best self for the bout with Gustafsson. He didn’t cite any specific injury or reason, but just felt like he could have done much better:

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“He thinks Gustafsson was very game and put forth a great fight, but he thinks personally, he was only at seventy percent. And next time he vowed that he’d be at a hundred percent. He can’t wait for his next fight. He will not even entertain the idea of entering a new training camp until he feels one hundred percent. He is not going to rush it.”

So while the rematch was quickly becoming the hottest topic in all of MMA, both White and Jones had done a little to cool those fires in the past few days. With “Bones’ and ‘The Mauler’ being so young in their careers, it’s probably inevitable that they fight at least one more time, so there could be no need to rush.

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On the other hand, it would be nice to see a second fight that puts all the doubt to rest.

Outer Photo:Tom Szczerbowski for USA TODAY Sports