Jon Jones with Greg Jackson after win / Photo: Getty Images
Feeling the wrath of the Canadian crowd at the weight-in preceding his fight with Lyoto Machida, UFC champion Jon Jones tried to win over some new fans. Of his own volition or not, the light heavyweight kingpin and MMA fighter of the year showed the posture of a champion early this morning, tweeting a message to Machida in rudimentary Portuguese.
“Cintos Lyoto não fazem homens como você campeões, você é um verdadeiro guerreiro e um campeão na vida. Foi uma honra estar na mesma gaiola que você. Abençoar.” Deciphering the content, what he means to say is, “Lyoto, belts don’t make champions like you. You’re a true warrior and champion in life. It was an honor to share the cage with you. Blessings.”
After choking Lyoto unconcious at UFC 140 last Saturday, with a somewhat unusual guillotine, Jones went to check on the karate stylist; the gesture wasn’t of his own free will, though, but an order from his coach, Greg Jackson, who told his student to go and “win some fans.” The advice was not taken kindly to by the American press, but Greg played it down: “That was not my intention. I didn’t want to manipulate him, I just wanted to remind him after the fight, when the fighter is pumped up with adrenaline, to do the right thing,” Jackson told the MMA Hour website.
Among Jones’s accolades, he is the first light heavyweight titlist since Chuck Liddell to defend his belt on two occasions, ending the round-robin of champions.
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