He then flipped the bird to reigning champion and bitter rival Daniel Cormier - who was commentating the fight - on his way out of the cage, setting the tone for their looming rematch.
Jones beat replacement fighter, the No.6 ranked Saint Preux, 50-44, 50-45, 50-45 for a unanimous decision and will now face Cormier for the unified title - possibly as soon as UFC 200 on July 10 (Australian time). Cormier pulled out of the UFC 197 bout injured.
Jones, who admitted he felt he was “sucking” at times in the fight, gave a clear indication of his true ambition by casting aside his belt in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, making it clear Cormier is firmly on his mind.
“I don’t think I want that belt, that’s not the real belt,” Jones said. “I want my actual belt back.
“Everything’s happened for a reason, maybe I was meant to get in here and get a fight out of the way. It definitely took me a while to pull the trigger tonight.”
WATCH JON JONES FLIP THE BIRD TO DANIEL CORMIER & THE CHAMPION’S REACTION IN THE VIDEO ABOVE
Of his bird flip to Cormier, Jones told FOX Sports’ post-fight show: “It was just me being a jerk. I wanted to give him the finger. I don’t know why. I don’t what he said commentating throughout my fight.
“He may have been really nice, and now I’m the jerk, or he may have been talking trash. Either way I wanted to cover my end by just saying you know what I said.”
Cormier, who laughed off Jones’ middle-finger salute, called “Bones” out for UFC 200, dependent on his recovery.
“Get back in that gym Tuesday, like you said. I’m going to see the doctor on Monday - if they say that Daniel Cormier is OK to compete in 11 weeks at UFC 200, I’ll be there,” Cormier said.
“I’ll be there with my championship belt, and my red wraps, I’ll come out second and you wait for me to walk to the Octagon. We meet here, live from the T-Mobile Arena, the brand new arena out here in Las Vegas, and we unify these titles.
“Don’t bring that interim belt, you leave that at home. That’s garbage, that’s a play belt, that got that thing from the kiosk upstairs before they gave it to you in the middle of the Octagon. Leave that at home, Jon, come chase this real title and get beat and I’ll ship you back to Albuquerque.”
Jones lost the championship last year after being suspended from the UFC and stripped of his belt, over an ugly hit and run incident. He also tested positive to cocaine, not deemed a PED by the UFC, after beating Cormier at UFC 182.
However, he has never lost a title fight and made eight consecutive defences before being stripped. Sunday was his 16th UFC victory, against just one loss to Matt Hamill in 2009.
As he alluded to post-fight, Jones was understandably not at his dominant best against Saint Preux. Both fighters looked fatigued deep in the bout and some fans booed as it became apparent a finish was unlikely, for which Jones apologised.
Asked what felt different, Jones said: “Really, I was just watching. I was watching and anticipating, imagining techniques landing. Normally those techniques would have landed. Just not even going for it.
“Physically, I felt amazing - I feel like I got two more rounds in me right now.
“Mentally, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m sucking, this isn’t good’.”
Jones vowed to be better for the Cormier rematch.
“I really needed that fight,” he said. “I didn’t look at this as a warm-up fight, because as you can see he’s definitely really game, but I really needed that fight before I fight for my title. My next fight’s going to be a hell of a lot better, I guarantee it.”
Cormier said he would have beaten Jones on Sunday’s performance and was upset to miss the opportunity of catching his nemesis cold.
“Ring rust is real, we felt like there would be some and it showed tonight. He even said it himself, it’s not like me being bitter towards the guy, he said it. he felt rusty, he didn’t fight his best fight and as much as I congratulate Ovince Saint Preux, if you fight me in that way you can’t win.”
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RISING Aussie UFC middleweight Robert Whittaker has claimed his fifth consecutive win in the Octagon, beating Brazilian Rafael Natal by unanimous decision at UFC 197 in Las Vegas.
Whittaker, the No.7 middleweight in the UFC’s rankings, prevailed 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 on the judges’ scorecards to further push his claims in the middleweight division - albeit against a lesser ranked opponent (No.13).
Whittaker put an exclamation point on a classy performance with a brutal head kick with just seconds remaining, with the bell possibly saving Natal.
Reigning flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson produced a devastating title defence against Henry Cejudo for his 24th career win, taking a Round 1 KO win after rattling the challenger with a knee to the head and finishing him with ground strikes.
It was Johnson’s fifth finish in his last seven fights. It was the eighth defence of his flyweight title and his 14th win in the UFC.