Before his fight with Cyril Gaine at the final UFC 285 event, Jon Jones seemed to have largely avoided catastrophe.
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A Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) official noted the tape around Jones’ feet as he entered the Octagon. It wasn’t. After a brief conversation, one of Jones’ cornermen cut off part of it, leaving it slapped on the big toe.
Officially, that was enough, but the former UFC light heavyweight champion wasn’t too happy about having to deal with that distraction before his long-awaited return.
At the post-match press conference, Jones said: “I used a different tape. I usually use a particular brand of tape. I shout to them, War Tape. I feel like it’s sticky the whole time. Tonight I used UFC tape, and as soon as my body started sweating, the tape started slipping all over the place.
“So I kind of put a little cast around my toes to the middle of my foot to keep the tape from slipping off my toes,” Jones continued. “And when I got out there, the committee was like, ‘You can’t tape your feet.’ And I’m like, ‘Hey, I’ve always had taping on my feet.
Despite the interruption, Jones continued to dominate Gaine, who eventually submitted to a guillotine choke applied by Jones in the first round of the bout. Despite this, he had problems with the tape on his toes.
The tape around Jones’ toes began to peel off as he pressed Gein against the cage. It’s been a worrying time for Jones, who has been in constant bandages ever since he broke his toe in a fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 159 about a decade ago. The 35-year-old fighter expressed his hope that he would never have to deal with the tape problem again and said he would not enter the Octagon if his legs were fine.
“If I can’t tap my toes, I’m not going to compete,” Jones said. “I don’t do that. I want everyone to know that for the future, so thank God there were no disasters tonight. But they changed their tone a little bit in the end.” They allowed me to keep the tape on my toe and ordered me to remove the rest of the tape from my foot.It was a bit of a distraction to get into a fight.”
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