Craig Jones is not particularly happy with Gable Steveson.<\/p>\n
This weekend Jones and Steveson were supposed to face each other in the final match of the Craig Jones Invitational 2, a two-night team-based grappling event held in Las Vegas. However, earlier this week, Steveson withdrew from the event citing a turf toe injury, though the Olympic gold medalist is, at the moment, still scheduled to make his MMA debut at LFA 217 in two weeks. For Jones, it was a very unfortunate turn of events he\u2019s still processing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had my doubts the whole time,\u201d Jones told The Mac Life<\/a>. \u201cI really should have put more thought into the backup plan. .. We wanted to do the Gable match because, like the Gabby match transcends jiu-jitsu and lures people into watching the real jiu-jitsu, and hopefully they stay and pay attention to more of the real jiu-jitsu stuff. Gable was the person I thought we could do that with, but Gable really put no effort in. I think he collaborated on three posts. \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cHe put no effort in. We have to put in a lot of effort to promote. \u2026 In retrospect, we should\u2019ve gone with Wyatt Hendrickson (who defeated Steveson in the 2025 NCAA national championship wrestling match) . I think that would have been more funny. But we did sign Gable Steveson to a contract prior to him losing. Obviously, you should always wait for someone to lose something before you negotiate with them.\u201d<\/p>\n After Steveson\u2019s withdrawal, some suggested the entire thing was an orchestrated attack from the UFC, who Jones is not on the best terms with. The idea was that the UFC persuaded Steveson to withdraw at the last minute, leaving Jones in the lurch, but Jones doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s really what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cNever attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidit,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI think therein lies the problem. I will say that his management did try to book him for a Dirty Boxing match two days before the event, which really started to concern me that they thought that was a great idea. It really showed the value they had for our event.<\/p>\n \u201cBut again, hold out hope that he would be a good human being and a man of his word, because turf toe \u2014 obviously turf toe is going to suck, especially in wrestling. It would be very difficult to compete under those conditions. But at the end of the day it\u2019s grappling. At the end of the day, no one expected Gable to win. We all felt like we knew what was going to happen there. I could have leg-locked him at any moment. When we spoke about the match previous, we spoke about going in there with a friendly, fun, grow the sport sort of energy. There was no intent to submit this man in 15 seconds, nor was there any intent from him to break my spine. But do I think he ever intended to do the match? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n But just because he doesn\u2019t believe Steveson intentionally screwed him doesn\u2019t mean Jones was pleased with how he handled the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he booked the LFA fight two weeks after, that\u2019s truly when I was deeply concerned,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThen he just stopped replying to me altogether. Usually he\u2019d be a bit slow on the response, but then he stopped replying to me altogether. \u2026 Have some f*cking human decency and warn me, give me an idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Jones, last-minute replacements for headlining jiu-jitsu opponents don\u2019t grow on trees, especially not ones with comparable resumes to Steveson. Fortunately though, he was able to make something happen, and now UFC Hall of Famer Chael Sonnen is stepping in to roll against Jones in the main event. And no alleged interference from the UFC will prevent him from doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, Chael Sonnen does whatever the f*ck he wants,\u201d Jones said. \u201c\u2026 That\u2019s what I respect about Chael. Chael will do whatever the f*ck he wants to do. I firmly believe if anyone at the UFC, Dana White included, said, \u2018Hey, do not do this,\u2019 Chael would be like, \u2018I will do whatever the f*ck I want to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n FIGHTS! Islam Makhachev vs. Jack Della Maddalena, Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili headline UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n Altercation. Luke Rockhold, Darren Till and Dillon Danis nearly come to blows<\/a> during volatile Misfits 22 press conference.<\/p>\n Fight. Mike Perry: Potential BKFC superfight with Conor McGregor \u2018could be very real.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Injury. Aljamain Sterling reveals details about injury suffered<\/a> during Brian Ortega fight at UFC Shanghai.<\/p>\n Out. Raul Rosas Jr. out of fight<\/a> against Rob Font at Noche UFC 3.<\/p>\n Weight. Bryan Battle makes weight<\/a> for Dirty Boxing 3 just days after UFC release.<\/p>\n Mailbag. UFC Mailbag: What does the UFC\u2019s future on Paramount<\/a> look like?<\/p>\n Misfits 22 Press Conference.<\/p>\n Daniel Cormier on Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE<\/p>\n Yes. Yes we were. And mostly got what we expected. Though great, nonetheless.<\/p>\n Dan Ige\u2019s life lessons.<\/p>\n Valter Walker (14-1) vs. Mohammed Usman (11-4); UFC Rio, Oct. 11.<\/p>\n Virna Jandiroba (22-3) vs. Mackenzie Dern (15-5); UFC 321, Oct. 25.<\/p>\n Umar Nurmagomedov (18-1) vs. Mario Bautista (16-2); UFC 321, Oct. 25.<\/p>\n Islam Makhachev (27-1) vs. Jack Della Maddalena (18-2); UFC 322, Nov. 15.<\/p>\n Valentina Shevchenko (25-4-1) vs. Zhang Weili (26-3); UFC 322, Nov. 15.<\/p>\n Leon Edwards (22-5, 1 NC) vs. Carlos Prates (22-7); UFC 322, Nov. 15.<\/p>\n Alright y\u2019all. Another week in the books and this one has no UFC this weekend. Instead we\u2019ve got a smorgasbord of other stuff, including Misfits, CJI, Dirty Boxing, and more. Keep it locked here for all your updates and enjoy the weekend. Oh, and with Labor Day on Monday, no MR until Tuesday next week.<\/p>\n If you find something you\u2019d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee<\/a> or @JedKMeshew<\/a> on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, and like us on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n