Jon Jones claims he will never fight without toe tape following UFC 285 debacle: ‘I never want to compete without it’
Recently minted undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, Jon Jones has revealed that he had to gut through potentially walking away from last weekend’s UFC 285 headliner from the Octagon, after he was made remove tape from his right foot ahead of his return.
Jones, who headlined the event in a bid to become a two-weight champion following prior light heavyweight title exploits, managed to clinch the vacant heavyweight crown with a dominant, opening round guillotine choke submission win over Ciryl Gane at the T-Mobile Arena.
However, in the moments ahead of the event’s curtain closer, Jon Jones was involved in a debacle of sorts with members of the Nevada state athletic commission, who requested he remove tape form his fight foot and toes ahead of his fight with Gane.
Revealing post-fight the reasoning for sporting tape on his foot, Endicott native, Jones claimed that despite repairing his toe injury suffered in a 2013 first round TKO wn over Chael Sonnen, the after-effects of the gruesome toe injury send a sharp pain through his body if he pivots too much – leading to him strapping his foot during training.
“Yeah, so I broke my toe when I fought Chael Sonnen years ago and ever since then, every day I practice, I tape my toe just to ensure that it doesn’t pop out again,” Jon Jones told ESPN following UFC 285. “The toe is totally fine. But every once in a while, if I pivot on it too hard, it sends the most excruciating pain up my body and I just never want to compete without my toe taped again. So, hopefully, the proper people hear me and I don’t run into the issue again.”
Jon Jones claims he almost refused to fight at UFC 285 during the debacle
Jones then claimed that the calamity almost prevented him from actually competing against Gane at UFC 285 – before he decided to take inspiration from his brother, Arthur Jones.
“I knew, being a world champion, being in my position, nothing is supposed to be easy,” Jon Jones explained. “Baltimore Ravens, my brother Arthur (Jones) taught me that you got to have skin like an armadillo. And so, I was having tape issues, said you know what, screw it, who cares. Nothing’s going to stop me. I want to be in there. It’s time for me to eat. So they cut the rest of the tape off my foot, they left my toe taped. It was awesome.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda)
