With win at UFC 197, Jon Jones' warmup is officially over

One nice thing you can say about Saturday’s UFC 197 main event is that, for the most part, we weren’t asked to do too much pretending. That feels like a strange thing to praise, and yet how often is that the case in situations like this?

Jon Jones vs. Ovince Saint Preux was not a fight to determine the world’s best light heavyweight. It was a fight to kill time and get a decent sweat in while we set up the fight that will determine the best light heavyweight.

That it was mostly treated as such before, during, and after was a bit of refreshing honesty from the UFC. Clearly, we were gathered at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas not for Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) vs. OSP (19-8 MMA, 7-3 UFC), but for Jones vs. Daniel Cormier II.

Why else was Cormier (17-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) at the broadcast table to add his opinions on his greatest rival’s performance? Why else were we assured before the fight that, should Jones win, he would rematch Cormier soon? (No word on what would have happened if Saint Preux had won, probably because no one was seriously considering that possibility.)

The pre-fight ads may have exaggerated OSP’s ability and accomplishments, because that’s just what they do. When UFC commentator Joe Rogan said that a title shot for Saint Preux had long felt “inevitable,” the discerning viewer might have been tempted to add: “ … since eventually Jones will run out of other people to beat up.”

Daniel Cormier

But when you sat down to actually watch UFC 197’s pay-per-view, it had all the elements of a violent warmup. It was spring training, but with blood and broken arms.

From the look of it, Jones was in need of a gradual return to action. He wasn’t bad, by any means. He’s never bad. He also wasn’t quite as brilliant as he usually is, which was good news for Saint Preux, who fought like his only goal was surviving to see the end of the fifth round. The result was a domination that felt a little like a practice, and with Cormier sitting just a few feet away to remind us what Jones was practicing for.

Jones didn’t need reminding. After flashing Cormier the old Stockton Heybuddy on his way out of the cage, he had zero difficulty turning his attention to his old foe. Good thing too, since it didn’t seem like many people were eager to hear him discuss the monumental feat of beating Saint Preux.

Even during the fight, Jones said at the post-fight press conference, his thoughts weren’t on how he needed to put OSP away in impressive fashion, but rather on the man just beyond the chain-link.

“This may sound funny – a part of me was just like, ‘You’ve got to fight (Cormier), Jon – you’ve got to fight ‘DC,’’” Jones said after the fight. “‘Do what you’ve got to do to win this fight. The goal is to get back to the UFC. Whether you look like crap right now or not. The goal is to get back to ‘DC.’’”

Usually that’s the kind of thing you’d expect to hear from the loser of the first fight, the guy aching for another chance to prove himself. Hearing that it was the driving force behind Jones’ performance against OSP helps a lot of things about that fight make sense.

Plus, be honest, it’s what we were all thinking about when Jones got complacent enough to catch the occasional right hand from Saint Preux. Surely, he wasn’t about the mess around and ruin that Cormier rematch, was he?

And he didn’t, of course. He did what he had to do, worked through some of the minor kinks that are bound to result from a year spent in and out of court and just plain out of the cage, and in the end came out looking like maybe now he was ready for the real fight.

Good thing, too. Because after all the drama, so are we.

For complete coverage of UFC 197, check out the UFC Events section of the site.