For most fans, Jon Jones is the baddest, the meanest, and the greatest fighter to ever grace the Octagon. He’s known to get the better of every opponent that had ever dared to step up to him, but guess what? ‘Bones’ has a bit of a problem as well, and Joe Rogan recently revealed it during a conversation with his guests on his JRE podcast.

There have been very severe injuries in the UFC, and if we ask the fans, most would talk about Chris Weidman‘s leg break. That was a wild one, but even the best fighters suffer from injuries as well, and Jon Jones is one of them. Back when he fought the UFC Hall of Famer Chael Sonnen in their only encounter under the UFC banner at UFC 159, ‘Bones’ broke his toe.

Since then, the consensus MMA GOAT has to tape up his left toe every time he steps inside the Octagon to butt heads with his opponents. “Jon Jones can’t even fight unless he has his big toe on his left foot taped to his next toe,” Joe Rogan told guests Yannis Pappas and Chris Distefano on the #2249 JRE episode. “He has to have it taped up because he tore his toe completely upside down when he was beating up Chael Sonnen.”

Joe Rogan would then talk about how Jon Jones wouldn’t realize what had happened to his toe until he pointed it out to the heavyweight champion. The adrenaline rush appeared to have kept ‘Bones’ unaware of his injury until he saw what happened and freaked out instantly. “He didn’t realize it until I was interviewing him after the fight and he looks down and sees his toes, like, [worried expression],” Joe Rogan added. “It was horrible.” 

Amidst this, fans would wonder why Jon Jones is required to tape his toe every time. Well, the UFC champion opened up a couple of years ago regarding the same.

Jon Jones doesn’t want his toe to ‘pop out’

The revelation that Joe Rogan made about Jon Jones’s toe was addressed by the latter back when he made his return in 2023. According to the heavyweight champion, he tapes his toe during fights and even during training sessions. The only fear that Jones has is that his toe could pop out any minute should he leave it untapped. “I broke my toe when I fought Chael Sonnen years ago, and ever since then, every day at practice, I tape my toe just to ensure that it doesn’t pop out,” said ‘Bones’.

However, Jones assured that his toe is as good as it can be, but he still feels a bit of pain if he tries to mess with it more than he needs to. “The toe is totally fine, but every once in a while, if I pivot on it too hard, it sends the most excruciating pain up my body. And I just never want to compete without my toe taped again,” Jones added.

Interestingly, if ‘Bones’ hadn’t finished Sonnen before the completion of the first round in which he suffered the injury, then he most probably would have been deemed unclear to continue. More importantly, he would have lost his 205lbs crown to ‘The Bad Guy’. Injuries are a part of combat sports, especially in MMA, and many fighters get through their predicament to compete once again.

However, some injuries have long-lasting and long-term effects. But it doesn’t seem the same for Jon Jones. Let us know your thoughts on the heavyweight champ’s precautionary move before his UFC fights.