Verne Troyer Rips Into Former UFC Champion Jon Jones For ‘M-Word’
Verne Troyer, best known for his role as “Mini Me” in the Austin Powers franchise, is not pleased with former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones over the latter’s use of the word “midget.”
The incident started when Jones called UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier a “mental midget” after the champion offered to train Jones’ upcoming opponent, Ovince Saint Preux.
“Daniel is a mental midget, I’m not worried about Daniel. Him inviting ‘OSP’ shows he’s so lucky to watch from the sidelines and not in the cage with me.”
Jon Jones was originally set to face Cormier for the light heavyweight title, but the fight was scrapped after the champion hurt his lower leg.
Jones will now face Saint Preux for the interim light heavyweight championship at UFC 197. The winner will go on to face Cormier in a title unification bout.
Lol we? ? who's we? You and your vagina? https://t.co/HfgmiSCrjG
— BONY (@JonnyBones) April 5, 2016
Me, my team and any reasonable human being. https://t.co/hope1dwWG2
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) April 5, 2016
Their mutual hatred even culminated in an onstage brawl.
In Cormier’s latest tweet, the champion opined that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend.” If that is the case, Cormier may find a new bosom buddy in Verne Troyer, who apparently shares the champion’s dislike of Jones.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, Troyer, said “midget” is “not the proper term.”
“It’s just people aren’t very bright, aren’t conscious of, you know, other people,” said Troyer, who has cartilage-hair hypoplasia. “And they’re naive, and I would say stupid.”
When asked if he thought Jones should apologize, Troyer said Jon simply should not have said it.
“I think he shouldn’t say it. But apologize? Yeah, I guess. But you just shouldn’t say it. Nobody should.”
Troyer’s comments are simply the latest, and possibly the least, of the former light heavyweight champion’s problems, though. Despite his talents inside the octagon, Jon Jones’ career has been plagued by controversies and legal troubles, the latter of which have been mainly traffic-related.
In May, 2012, Jones crashed his Bentley Continental GT into a pole. He later pleaded guilty to driving under the influence.
Almost three years later, Jones was involved in a hit-and-run accident that left a pregnant woman injured. He was later stripped of his title and put on 18 months probation, which he recently violated.
The recent Troyer incident is also not the first time Jon Jones has been in trouble over insensitive comments.
In 2014, a Swedish man with the Twitter name “ONE DANCE” accused Jones of using homophobic slurs against him. One of the tweets supposedly coming from Jones showed the former champion — who is a Christian and has “Philippians 4:13” tattooed on his chest — telling ONE DANCE that “Homosexuality is a sin.”
Jon Jones stalked me on insta through twitter, blocked me & called me a fag 5 times.
@AlexTheMauler knock him out pic.twitter.com/a5OS9CJ2Y8— lavashak (@champooow) April 15, 2014
Jones claimed that his phone was hacked, and later tweeted that he just “got a new phone” and changed all of his social media passwords.
In the Verne Troyer case, though, there is no question as to who said “midget” and Troyer ended his interview with TMZ by saying that he hopes Jones loses. Though there may be some in the MMA community who share the Austin Powers star’s sentiments, few may feel Saint Preux could pull off such an upset.
Jon Jones is considered by many to be one of the best mixed martial artists in the world. At only 23-years-old, he became the youngest fighter to win a UFC championship when he defeated Mauricio Rua at UFC 128. He also holds the UFC record for most consecutive light heavyweight title defenses (8) and ranks third in the most consecutive title defenses, right behind Anderson Silva (10) and Georges St. Pierre (9).
Jones has never actually been beaten in a fight. The one controversial “loss” that sullies his 22-professional fight career is a disqualification loss due to an illegal 12 to 6 elbow against former UFC light heavyweight, Mark Hamill.
Saint Preux, on the other hand, holds 19 wins and has seven times Jones’ losses.
Simply put: If Verne Troyer is hoping to see Jon Jones lose, he had better keep his fingers crossed.
UFC 197 will go down at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 23.
[Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images]
