Jon Jones Pulls Out Of UFC 170
Less than a day after announcing that Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira would headline UFC 170, president Dana White said the light heavyweight champion has pulled out of the fight.
When asked if Jones was injured, White said no. Jones’ reason for withdrawing from the match has yet to be disclosed.
“He won’t fight February 22,” White said at Thursday’s UFC 167 press conference. “It might be March now.” White also said that a new main event match was being sought for UFC 170.
It was initially reported that Jones and Teixeira would headline UFC 169, the promotion’s annual Super Bowl weekend card. White said that fight was “never a done deal” and that the two would meet later in the year.
According to Bleacher Report, the fight was nixed to give Jones more time to recover following his victory against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165. The 26-year-old, who passed former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz for most consecutive title defenses, was taken to the hospital after the match for a left foot injury suffered early in the match. The bout earned “Fight of the Night.”
After UFC 165, there was talk of an immediate rematch between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, but UFC matchmakers decided to give the champion a new opponent. Jones personally requested to fight the 33-year-old Brazilian, who has gone undefeated in his brief UFC career. Teixeira made his promotional debut at UFC 146 last May, beating Kyle Kingsbury by arm triangle choke submission.
Teixeira recently defeated Ryan Bader by first-round TKO at UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs. Bader on September 4.
Jon Jones weighed in on Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito’s recent comments toward teammate Jonathan Martin. Incognito was suspended indefinitely after calling Martin a “half n****r piece of s**t” and threatening to kill him.
“I’d kill him,” Jones said during an interview withThe Sports Junkies Tuesday. “Someone tweet him, let him know I’d smoke him. Easy.”
Jones also joked that it would be his “honor” to beat up Incognito, and that he would start threatening him on Twitter. While he wasn’t being serious, Jones was clearly bothered by Incognito’s comments.
