Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Jones-Bader fight is now in limbo?

For two guys who are trying to take the next step into the top five of the UFC's light heavyweight division, Ryan Bader and Jon Jones are sure presenting a lot of roadblocks in making the fight. When it first came out that Jones, the promotion's hottest prospect, was going to match up against another prospect in Bader, "Bones" expressed his disappointment in the fight. He didn't want to face another one-dimensional wrestler. You also got the feeling Jones wants to get in there with a bigger name. 

Jones, who hasn't fought since the very beginning of August, wanted to do it on Jan. 1. Then Bader pushed for Super Bowl Saturday in February. Now Dana White indicates that the fight isn't made and may not happen at all. From MMAWeekly.com:

"I don't know if Jones is going to fight Bader," White said. "We tried to put that fight together, but Bader has some stuff going on. Jon Jones might be fighting somebody else, I don't know how that's going to go."

Apparently, Bader now has an issue because of his upcoming wedding. This coming from MMAWeekly.com:

Bader had discussed timing of his next fight when appearing on MMAWeekly Radio following his win over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 119, and stated that he was getting married at the end of October and planned on taking a 2-week honeymoon following the ceremony.

A two-week vacation would have Bader returning home, at the latest, three weeks into November. Super Bowl Saturday is 11 weeks after that. Bader doesn't have enough time to prep for the fight? You can't kill the guy for wanting to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's with his new wife, but it sounds like he may be blowing a golden opportunity and that the promotion isn't going to keep Jones waiting around.  

"Jon Jones is an incredibly talented guy. He's very young, he's got some fights ahead of him, plus that's an incredibly stacked division," White commented. "He's going to have to go through a couple of guys before he gets a title shot, but at the rate Jon Jones is going he could be fighting for the title next year."

This all would've been nice to know before the UFC booked Forrest Griffin to face Rich Franklin on that Super Saturday card. So who should Jones face if it's not Bader? 

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