Earlier this month, Jon Jones was expected to face Dan Henderson in the main event of UFC 151. Unfortunately, Hendo was forced to withdraw due to a serious knee injury. Chael Sonnen asked to replace him, but Jones turned down the fight because he did not have enough notice. UFC President Dana White then announced that the entire fight card was cancelled.
Now Jones will take on Vitor Belfort in the main event at UFC 152 on September 22 in Toronto, Canada. The champ sat down with The Toronto Sun and made it clear that he is not finished with Henderson just yet.
“There’s some unfinished business, for sure. I don’t think Henderson handled the situation wisely, by making fun of me for not taking the fight (against Sonnen). Dude, you just dodged a bullet and you’re talking trash to me? You got injured and you’re going to talk trash that I didn’t fight Chael? He came out with this ad that said, ‘Buy a Hendo shirt and get a free Jon Jones shirt to dry your car off with.’ You’re making fun of me, yet you got hurt and dodged a bullet? You’re sitting at home with ice on your knee and I’m here doing pushups again because I thought my camp should have been over. I have stuff to do and you’re sitting around your home playing video games, or whatever you do during the day.”
He states that training camp sucked for this fight and he feels Henderson has been extremely ungrateful.
“Training camps suck, bro. Training camps suck. The fight is the fun part. So I’ve got to suffer all over again, do a training camp all over again, and you’re at home, laying down, having somebody feed you soup and you’re going to make fun of me because you got hurt? You should shut up and be grateful you dodged a bullet.”
The majority of the MMA community has placed the blame of the cancelled UFC 151 card on Jones. Dana White has stepped back a step and said that it wasn’t all Jones’ fault, but that doesn’t stop people from trashing the champ on Twitter. People say crazy stuff all the time.
“There are a lot of people who still love and respect me, but right now it’s kind of cool to hate me. I do something and it’s the worst thing in the world. Then when someone else does it, it’s almost OK. Chael says all this crazy stuff, but then I say something slight and it’s like, ‘Oh, that was the cockiest thing I’ve ever heard.’ Dan Henderson called me a kid 1,000 times leading up to that fight and we never even fought. I call him an old man once and the whole world was like, ‘You freakin’ age discriminator. You’re such a bad person. Wow, I can’t get away with anything and everyone else does pretty much whatever they want.”
The light heavyweight king-pin believes that a win will help a lot of people forget about the negativity.
“I think a good win helps people forget about the negativity. I think it reminds people why they’re here, why I’m here. I’m not really here to be the perfect character or the perfect person people love. I’m here because I’m a great entertainer. I give you guys blood and the things you want to see. I’m here to fight for people, not for all the extra side stuff. I just want to reward the fans with a great fight, so they can remember why they’re all supposed to be here.”
Belfort was the last name that popped into most peoples’ minds when an opponent for Jones was announced. Jones admits to the match-up was random; but has plenty of respect for the former champ.
“I thought it was kind of random, but everything inside of me was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome,’ ” Jones said. “I got nervous right away. That nervous feeling is good. That means you respect the guy you’re going against. He’s a southpaw. I’ve only ever fought one other southpaw. He’s a former world champion and there’s the whole, ‘Who is the youngest champion of all time?’ argument. There’s so much to prove there. There’s so much awesomeness to wake up and train five days (a week) for. So it was a blessing in disguise.”
Watch UFC 152 live on PPV on Saturday September 22, 2012.
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