{"id":99590,"date":"2019-03-01T15:10:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T23:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=99590"},"modified":"2019-03-01T15:10:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T23:10:44","slug":"jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Jones Defends Light Heavyweight Title vs. Anthony Smith at UFC 235"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC<\/a> light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is a heavy favorite heading into his title defense against No. 3 contender Anthony Smith on Saturday in the main event of UFC 235 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jon
Jon Jones is a heavy favorite to defeat Anthony Smith in the main event of UFC 235 on Saturday. (Image: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jones is coming off of a knockout victory over Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 in December, while Smith is riding a three-fight winning streak heading into his title shot.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jones vs. Mr. Smith<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jones (23-1) has been thoroughly dominant as a light heavyweight, leading some fans to speculate that he might want to consider a move to the heavyweight division to take on the likes of Brock Lesnar or Daniel Cormier. But on Wednesday\u2019s UFC 235 media day, Jones made it clear that he has no plans of making any such switch right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is talking about me going to heavyweight but I don\u2019t have any issues with my weight class,\u201d Jones told reporters. \u201cMy wife\u2019s my nutritionist. She knows what I like to eat. She knows how my body reacts to certain foods so I really don\u2019t have any problem making light heavyweight.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With Jones widely considered to be the greatest light heavyweight of all time, it\u2019s easy to see Smith (31-13) as something of an afterthought. But while the former middleweight acknowledges that Jones has earned his reputation, he believes he has what it takes to pull off what would be seen as a monumental upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that Jon Jones is the greatest of all-time and it doesn\u2019t matter how I look up to this point, I\u2019m always going to be a huge underdog,\u201d Smith told MMAjunkie<\/em> at media day. \u201cI don\u2019t care what Jon has planned. I don\u2019t care at all. I\u2019m going to fight the way I would normally fight, I\u2019m going to attack him from bell to bell. I\u2019m going to be in his face, and if he can deal with that, then props to him, but I don\u2019t think he can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atypical Drug Test Results Won\u2019t Stop Fight<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One subplot that has developed before the fight has to do with Jones and his history of testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Two drug tests taken earlier this month came back with abnormal results, testing positive for trace amounts of a metabolite for Turinabol, a steroid. However, experts say that this long-term metabolite is likely connected to the earlier violation for doping, for which he already served a 15-month suspension.<\/p>\n

\n

That means the fight is still on, and likely without any controversy. Inside the Octagon, few bettors are likely to share Smith\u2019s confidence in his ability to pose problems for Jones, with Bovada making the current champion a massive -900 favorite in the fight. Those backing Smith will earn a nice payday should he win, as he is currently fetching +550 odds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Smith vs. Jones clash isn\u2019t the only title fight on the UFC 235 card. The co-main event sees welterweight champion Tyron Woodley (19-3-1) defend his title against No. 2 contender Kamaru Usman (14-1), with the current champ installed as a slight -160 favorite to retain his title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is a heavy favorite heading into his title defense against No. 3 contender Anthony Smith on Saturday in the main event of UFC 235 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jones is coming off of a knockout victory over Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 in December, while Smith is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":99591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJon Jones Defends Light Heavyweight Title vs. Anthony Smith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jon Jones will come in as an overwhelming favorite to defeat challenger Anthony Smith in their light heavyweight title fight, which serves as the main event for UFC 235.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jon Jones Defends Light Heavyweight Title vs. Anthony Smith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jon Jones will come in as an overwhelming favorite to defeat challenger Anthony Smith in their light heavyweight title fight, which serves as the main event for UFC 235.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-01T23:10:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jon-Jones-UFC-235.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/\",\"name\":\"Jon Jones Defends Light Heavyweight Title vs. Anthony Smith\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jon-Jones-UFC-235.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-01T23:10:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-01T23:10:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Jon Jones will come in as an overwhelming favorite to defeat challenger Anthony Smith in their light heavyweight title fight, which serves as the main event for UFC 235.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jon-jones-defends-light-heavyweight-title-vs-anthony-smith\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jon-Jones-UFC-235.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jon-Jones-UFC-235.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Jon Jones is a heavy favorite to defeat Anthony Smith in the main event of UFC 235 on Saturday. 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