Jon ‘Bones’ Jones Wins In UFC Return, Wants His Light Heavyweight Title Back

For the first time since March 19, 2011, Jon Jones entered the octagon without a championship belt, and while he left it with one Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas after a shutout five-round decision win over Ovince Saint Preux in the main event of UFC 197, he wasn’t content with his interim UFC light heavyweight championship.

“I don’t think I want that belt, it’s not the real belt,” said Jones, who was stripped of the title now held by Daniel Cormier in 2015 because of legal issues. “I want my actual belt back.”

Jones will have his chance to take it back when he meets Cormier in a bout that was supposed to take place at UFC 197 before the champion was forced to withdraw because of injury. And while he wasn’t vintage Jones, after being out of the octagon for more than a year, he was more than good enough to win.

“It definitely took me a while to pull the trigger tonight, and I felt like I used 20 percent of the technique I actually know,” Jones said.