UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones is back in a sling having to recover from another surgery.
Jones revealed Monday in a video posted to his Instagram Stories that he underwent a two-hour surgery “shaving down some bone spurs” in his left elbow. The procedure took place in California, where Jones recorded the selfie video for his 8.2 million followers an hour after it was complete.
The elbow surgery comes roughly 10 weeks after Jones had surgery to repair a torn pectoralis tendon in late October, an injury he suffered in training just a couple of weeks before he was slated to defend his title vs. Stipe Miocic at UFC 295. Given that injury was expected to keep him out of action for at least eight months, Jones said it made sense to address his elbow issue now.
“Good news is that it’s about a 10-week heal process, and I’m out for months anyway because of this pec surgery, so I just thought I’d kill two birds and get this elbow taken care of once and for all,” Jones said.
Despite undergoing a second surgery in such a short period of time, Jones appeared to be in good spirits.
“Back on this recovery, still on this recovery journey,” Jones said. “Sometimes you have to take a small step back in order to move forward, and I’m patient.”
Once cleared, Jones is expected to still defend his title against Miocic, despite Tom Aspinall winning the interim heavyweight title with a knockout of Sergei Pavlovich this past November at UFC 295. The interim title fight was booked on short notice after Jones got injured.
Aspinall has been vocal about his desire to unify the title against Jones, though it looks unlikely he will get his wish.
