Cheers. Boos. Silence.
It doesn’t matter to Jon Jones how the spectators in Toronto at UFC 152 will react when he walks out to face Vitor Belfort on Sept. 22.
“I’m just there to compete,” the UFC light heavyweight champion told The Post on Friday night in a phone interview. “The fans don’t dictate the outcome of a fight.”
The 25-year-old Jones, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and the man pegged as the future of the sport, has become a whipping boy for fans and UFC president Dana White over the last month.
Nine days before UFC 151, Jones turned down a fight with Chael Sonnen after initial opponent Dan Henderson pulled out with a knee injury. The UFC ended up cancelling the entire show because it had no viable main event. White blamed Jones and his coach, Greg Jackson, in an angry media conference call.
Jones has stood by his decision to not fight on short notice. He says he has stopped worrying about what the audience may or may not do.
“I’m really not sure what to expect, but I’m comfortable with any reaction,” Jones said. “I’m just gonna go out there and perform and entertain the fans.”
After White ripped him, Jones said in an interview with MMAFighting.com that the UFC made him feel like “a piece of meat” in the manner they treated him. White was angered by that statement, saying in an interview this week that it “p—– him off worse than [expletive] canceling the event” and it “sounds like something a male supermodel would say.”
Jones had not heard White’s latest barbs, but told The Post that he’s learned to “not take anything personal.”
White also told MMAjunkie.com that Sonnen, who has emerged as Jones’ chief nemesis through numerous rips in interviews and on Twitter, is in a full training camp expecting to face Jones at UFC 152 if Belfort pulls out with an injury. Jones wouldn’t say whether or not he would accept a fight with Sonnen this time.
“Right now I’m just gonna focus on Vitor Belfort,” Jones said. “I don’t want to make any comments on Chael Sonnen.”
Jones thinks Belfort, the former light heavyweight champion who had been fighting at middleweight the last few years, is a tougher test than Henderson would have been.
“I feel as if Vitor’s physical speed is a little better,” Jones said. “His versatility is a little better. His southpaw style is something I’m not as used to.”
Neither is a chorus of boos from the crowd, but Jones says he’s ready for anything – in the Octagon and walking toward it.