UFC
Dana White praises Jon Jones after Vitor Belfort win at UFC 152, calls it "his best performance"
Sep 23, 2012 - 2:15:29 PM Dana White praises Jon Jones after Vitor Belfort win at UFC 152, calls it "his best performance"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

In the wake of canceling UFC 151, UFC President Dana White was not a big Jon Jones fan. He was livid at the Light Heavyweight Champion turning down a fight on eight days notice, and he didn't waste any opportunities to take shots at Jones and that decision.

However, following Jones' victory over Vitor Belfort at UFC 152 on Saturday night in Toronto, White had nothing but praise for the 25-year-old.

"There's no doubt that this was his best performance," White said at the post-fight press conference. "He looked phenomenal tonight. There was a lot of questions about Jon Jones that people kept asking over and over again, no matter who he fought. No matter how good he fought. Could he take a punch? He got hit with some big punches tonight from a real puncher, and he took them. He was injured. He had the heart to keep going, and he had a great fight tonight.

"There can be no more naysaying about Jon Jones. You love him or you hate him... but you can't deny that the kid is extremely talented and one of the best in the world."

Penick's Analysis: I wouldn't go so far as to call it Jones' best performance, but it was absolutely one of his most revealing and surprisingly challenging fights. The armbar hurt him, and he had to survive and fight back through that in a way he's never had to deal with before, but he was certainly down on how he fought at times. It wasn't his cleanest fight, and he left himself open in spots - and obviously the armbar was the most egregious. Still, he did battle through that, absorbed some big shots, and beat Belfort up for three rounds before nearly breaking Belfort's arm in the favor-returning Americana in the fourth round. It was still a showing of how dominant he is, but that part was expected. Still, that fight revealed tons about Jones' heart in the midst of a fight, and he didn't fold when it would have been easy to do in that first round. That part was great to see.