Jones Return Timeline Slashed Nearly In Half

Dana White claims Jon Jones will be sidelined for eight months after tearing his pec.

The UFC CEO may have been trying to justify the creation of yet another interim heavyweight title or simply preparing fans for the worst-case scenario (perhaps both). Either way, Board Certified Orthopedic Sports Surgeon David Abbasi, MD, believes Jones has a far better chance of making a full recovery in just four-to-six months.

Just in time for that “big card” in 2024.

“Brutal news about Jon Jones, the fact that he tore his pec muscle off of the bone,” Abbasi said on Twitter. “This is an injury sometimes we see with bench press on the way down. It can also happen when your arm gets overly stretched, places too much stress on the tendon, and it will tear and retract into the chest and that’s the reason you need to have surgery on the sooner rather than later, because it can actually scar in and you’re unable to stretch it back for the repair.

“I do you think the timeline of the eight months seems a little bit long,” Abbasi continued. “A lot of these can get a full recovery in four-to-six months. From my personal experience, a lot of times these guys are jumping the gun because they feel so good. So hopefully he can come back a little bit sooner but definitely bad news with Jon Jones, but he did need to get this addressed now.”

Jones has yet to comment on his injury.

In his absence, top-ranked heavyweight contenders Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich will collide for the interim 265-pound title, with the winner facing either Jones or Miocic — assuming they get rebooked for early-to-mid 2024 — at some point later next year. Then again, Jailton Almeida may be knocking on the championship door with a big victory at UFC Sao Paulo early next month.

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