Report: Jon Jones Won’t Fight At November’s UFC 230
Jon Jones won’t be fighting at UFC 230 come November.
Should he want to, everything would fit perfectly in place. Jones’ United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) suspension is up next month on October 28th. “”Bones” was given a 15-month suspension for a failed drug test last year after his third-round knockout win over Daniel Cormier.
The UFC is heading back to Madison Square Garden in November in Jones’ home state of New York. Unfortunately, it seems pretty clear that the former 205-pound champion won’t be headlining the card. UFC President Dana White and Jones’ manager have both confirmed he won’t be on the card.
Instead, reports have emerged that Jones is in talks for a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson at a later date. Despite these facts, fans are still holding out hope. Jones’ coach, Mike Winkeljohn, spoke to Submission Radio about the matter.
He himself said he doesn’t expect Jones to fight on the MSG card:
“I wouldn’t put money on him being there for the Madison Square Garden card. You know what, Jon is so smart that he wants to come back and do it right. He’s not in any rush to jump in there and do it ill-prepared.
“He wants to make sure he trains for the opponent once he finds out what that opponent is and do his homework. That’s what people don’t understand about Jon Jones, is he does his homework. Hours and hours and hours of studying tape, and hours and hours hitting these unpredictable things that he uses in the fight.
“But they’re really predictable for him because he’s put so much time into practicing. Jon is a student and a master of the game at reading his opponent. He knows what his opponent’s gonna do before they do it because he studies them.
“So, I would think Jon would want to find out who that is and have a good training camp for it.”
Currently, UFC 230 is co-headlined by a lightweight fight between Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier. With top stars such as Conor McGregor, Jones, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, and any others ruled out – it should be interesting what ends up headlining the card.
