After UFC president Dana White revealed he wants to overturn Matt Hamill’s disqualification win over Jon Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion made it clear he’s not looking to run back the only loss on his record.
Jones (24-1 MMA, 18-1 UFC) lost to Hamill after landing illegal downward elbows on Hamill (13-8 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in a December 2009 fight at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale. Jones was disqualified and has not experienced a defeat in nearly a decade since.
Somewhat out of nowhere, though, White said he’s had conversations with the Nevada Athletic Commission, which initially declined to hear an appeal of the result, to have the loss taken off Jones’ record. How that plays out remains to be seen, but it gave Hamill an opportunity to insert himself in the narrative.
The veteran fighter, who is 2-3 since his final UFC bout in October 2013, took to social media and said he would happily rematch Jones. He also took a shot by insinuating that Jones wasn’t “clean” for their matchup.
Jones expressed disappointment in Hamill’s approach to the situation and outright stated he’s not trying to get the fight again (via Instagram):
Let’s set the record straight, definitely not looking for a rematch.
Jones also expressed disappointment in Hamill’s attack.
“Damn Matt, the disrespect,” Jones wrote. “Thought you were smarter than this. Honestly, I’ve never said a bad thing about you.”
Jones added, “Honestly, I was just blindsided. He’s a fellow upstate New York guy. Over these years I’ve always given him mad love. Funny how people are. I’m not even mad at him though, I understand it’s his claim to fame. Just wish he would have went about this a different way. It’s whatever.”
Jones has bigger business to attend too, anyway, with a 205-pound title defense against Thiago Santos (21-6 MMA, 13-5 UFC) next week at UFC 239 in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass.
For more on UFC 239, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
