Jon Jones is one step closer to restoring his perfect MMA record.
The UFC heavyweight champion has been pretty much perfect during his professional career, but he there is one blemish on his 28-fight record.
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In 2009, Jones infamously suffered his lone career loss when he was disqualified for hitting Matt Hamill with several illegal ‘12-6 elbows’.
‘Bones’ was dominating their fight until referee Steve Mazzagatti decided he had thrown several straight-up, straight-down elbow strikes to a grounded opponent and disqualified him.
The 27-1 two-weight champion appealed the result but was unsuccessful.
Dana White’s promotion made efforts to get it overturned too, but the result and rule have remained in place until now.
On Tuesday, the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) voted unanimously to lift than ‘12-6 elbow’ ban, which had been in place since the MMA Unified Rules were created in 2000.
Jones was quick to react to the landmark rule change on social media.
The 37-year-old shared a picture from his fight with Hamill to Instagram alongside a message to the UFC boss, who he urged to overturn his only career loss.
“Undefeated then, undefeated now,” Jones captioned the post.
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“Dana White we gotta get that loss out of the history books.”
Jones can now appeal his defeat to Hamill again, but it might not be successful.
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Veteran MMA reporter Ariel Helwani believes the best-case scenario is the fight result being changed to a no-contest. However, he has suggested it may be too late to do that.
Helwani tweeted: “Worth noting, Jon Jones can appeal his 2009 loss to Matt Hamill to get it overturned into a no contest (not a win) but it *might* be too late since that was almost 15 years ago
“Long shot. Best that could happen is it’s turned to a no contest but it was a rule at the time (tho very rarely enforced. He was easily gonna win that fight, too) so not sure how it can be justified.”
While that process goes on, Jones will continue preparing for his comeback.
The American hasn’t fought since winning heavyweight gold by submitting Cirly Gane in March 2023, but a clash with Stipe Miocic is expected to take place later this year.
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UFC 309 on November 9 is rumoured to be hosting their legacy fight.
Hopefully, the winner will go on to face whoever emerges victorious from the UFC 304 co-main event between interim champion Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes.