The UFC light heavyweight GOAT, Jon 'Bones' Jones, has received several accolades in his illustrious MMA career. However, there have been some close calls in his UFC career that have turned some MMA fans against him. Here, we take a look at five times Jon Jones broke rules inside the UFC octagon.
Jones, with his 84-inch reach, sometimes extends his fingers outwards and invariably catches fighters with eye pokes. Despite being warned by referees on multiple occasions, Jones has landed such eye pokes on Daniel Cormier and Glover Teixeira, to name a few.
At UFC 235, ‘Bones’ landed a brutal knee to a downed Anthony Smith in the fourth round. If Smith was unable to continue the bout, Jones would have lost the title via a DQ. However, Smith got back up, and Jones was deducted two points after landing that illegal knee.
In his UFC debut, Jones lost his bout against Matt Hamill via disqualification for landing illegal elbows. The elbows were off the 12–6 (downwards elbow), which is an illegal move in MMA to prevent damage to the skull.
Jones has landed groin strikes on multiple occasions in his bouts against Alexander Gustafsson, Quinton Jackson, and more.
Under the unified professional MMA rules, one cannot grab the cage during their bout. However, Jones has made several attempts of cage grabs on multiple occasions in his bouts against Daniel Cormier, Stephan Bonnar, and more.