UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones has issued an apology to fans for his fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 178 being postponed due to the torn meniscus injury he suffered earlier this week.
Jones also confirmed that he is now undergoing surgery to repair the damage and will still be on course to fight his rival at UFC 182 on January 3rd.
“I’d like to apologize to all the fans who were excited for UFC 178. Earlier this week, I suffered an injury while training for the fight,” Jones wrote on Facebook. “I’m having surgery tomorrow and I’m focused on recovering as quickly as possible. I look forward to getting back in the gym and defending my title on Jan. 3 in Las Vegas.”
Initially Jones’ coach Greg Jackson had indicated that they were hoping to avoid surgery since ideally a fighter would “want to be cut as little as possible”, but it appears that the injury was serious enough to require it.
Meanwhile it’s emerged that it was a training room takedown from a recent addition to Greg Jackson’s camp, heavyweight Alistair Overeem, that resulted in Jones being injured.
“It’s part of the game, it wasn’t like somebody went for a flying kick and dislocated [something],” Jackson told sherdog.com. “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.”
“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.”
As it happens, at a UFC 178 media event just last week Jones had hailed Overeem as “a great training partner”. Nevertheless, it’s an awkward situation for Overeem though as the new guy on the team, particularly it comes after he left his last two fight camps, Golden Glory and The Blackzillians on bad terms.
Overeem is himself currently training for his next fight which will come against ‘Big’ Ben Rothwell in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 50 on September 5th.
