The name ‘Jon Jones’ and the word ‘controversy’ go hand in hand, especially during his fight weeks. But, tonight might be one of the firsts where a fiasco happened just seconds before ‘Bones’ was on his way to enter the Octagon for his Heavyweight debut. Even though Jon made ‘quick work’ of Ciryl Gane to win via a guillotine choke, the toe tape drama seems to be on many fans’ minds.
THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME IS NOW THE HEAVYWEIGHT WORLD CHAMP 🏆
JON JONES SUBMITS CIRYL GANE!! #UFC285 pic.twitter.com/JOiAnweVJ5
— UFC (@ufc) March 5, 2023
Just as Jones was about to walk up the stairs towards the Octagon gate, the UFC officials seemed to, what may appear as, have problems with something going on with Jon’s feet. Turns out, when the camera got up close and personal, there were two tapes wrapped around Jon’s left feet right next to each other. The tapes were white in color and had the words ‘UFC’ written all over them. DC and Joe Rogan couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.
Jon, who weighed in at 248 pounds on the scales, appeared visibly confused when the officials and a camera man started hovering around him instead of letting him enter the Octagon. After a back-and-forth amongst each other, the officials decided to cut the toe tapes off Jones’ left foot. However, this didn’t seem to affect Jon or his performance one bit.
At the post-fight press conference, when asked about this, Jon said –
“Yeah, so, I used a different tape. I usually use a certain brand of tape. I’ll give them a shoutout, “wartape”. and I feel like it’s just a lot stickier. I used the UFC’s tape tonight. and as soon as my body started to sweat, the tape was sliding all over the place. and so I made almost like a cast around my toe that linked down to the middle of my foot so that the tape wouldn’t slide off my toes.”
He further added, “and when I got out there, the commission was just like “You can’t tape your feet”, and I’m like “Dude I’ve always taped my feet. I’m not gonna compete if I cant tape my toes. I just won’t do it. I want everyone to know that for the future.” Jones made sure to add, “It was a nice little distraction, going into the fight.”
Jon Jones broke his toe against Chael Sonnen in 2013
New fans might be unaware, but this wasn’t the first time where Jon had showed concern over his left foot. Jon Jones famously broke his left foot when he defended his Light Heavyweight title against Chael Sonnen in 2013 at UFC 159. Ever since, Jon has never shied away from letting the public know about the issues he has faced with his foot moving forward in his career.
Jon Jones says he had his toes taped because he occasionally still suffers pain when he plants incorrectly, as a result of a break that occurred in the Chael Sonnen fight. That’s what the commission took exception with after his walkout. #UFC285
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) March 5, 2023
While the fans don’t have to worry about the whole toe tape drama for the time being, what they can expect is a massive heavyweight showdown between Jon Jones and the UFC heavyweight GOAT, Stipe Miocic, as the former called out the Croatian for a clash. The bout will likely happen during the UFC International Fight Week this year, per what Stipe said during his sit-down interview with Daniel Cormier earlier this week.
Whether or not the toe tape fiasco should have happened, it surely didn’t seem to affect Jon Jones’ in-cage performance as he flawlessly secured a submission win over Ciryl Gane for the UFC Heavyweight title. Would the tape have helped Jon during his bout in any way? Let us know in the comments down below.
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