Jon Jones’ injury is the “fight news” of the moment. His planned bout with Daniel Cormier was looking to be the biggest fight the UFC could put on all year, after the two men traded words, then punches, and then more words over the past couple weeks. Even two months out from fight night, the air was buzzing with anticipation; the kind of hype the UFC has, at times, felt incapable of creating lately. And then, of course, it all came crashing down, with the announcement that Jon Jones would be pulling out of the bout due to injury; a torn meniscus and sprained ankle suffered in training. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the injury was wrestling related, with heavyweight Alistair Overeem the fighter on the delivering end of a takedown. Sherdog has the story:
According to Jackson, the injury occurred while Jones was defending a takedown from UFC heavyweight talent Alistair Overeem during wrestling practice.
“It’s part of the game, it wasn’t like … somebody went for a flying kick and dislocated [something]. Somebody went for a takedown, [Jones] stepped the wrong way, twisted the wrong way and down he went. He was fighting it, and he just twisted it. And then it just popped,” Jackson said.
“Alistair’s maybe 240, Jon’s 220. It’s not like he was working with a giant moose. It was just one of those things.”
It feels unfortunate that Overeem’s name has been dropped into this mix. He’s had a poor history with his past training camps, and being associated with an injury to one of the sports biggest stars can’t help him in his newest one. That’s not to assume any blame on his part here, wrestling seems like the main cause of almost every major training injury in MMA. Who happens to be on the mat at the time hardly seems to matter. It’s just an unfortunate happenstance that Overeem gets to be “that guy” who helped derail the UFC’s biggest fight this year.
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