Jon Jones looked on as Daniel Cormier defended his light heavyweight title in Buffalo last Saturday night against Anthony Johnson.
He offered little in the way of reaction as Johnson opted to wrestle Cormier and despite landing a flurry of combinations in the opening stages of the fight, "Rumble" was submitted in the second round.
Jones has been out of action since last summer, when he was cited by USADA for an anti-doping violation. He was pulled from his headline fight at UFC 200 against Cormier after testing for a banned substance, which Jones blamed on a "contaminated sex pill".
Jones and Cormier were scheduled to fill the gap left by Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz's rematch and would have fought in a light heavyweight unification fight - whereby Jones was the interim division champion and Cormier was the division champion.
Jones was handed a 12-month suspension by USADA and will again be eligible to fight in July this year.
His actions infuriated UFC president Dana White last year, who vowed he would not book Jones in a main event again because of the trouble it caused.
"If Jones fights, Jones is going to be a co-main event anyway," he told FOX Sports after Saturday's card in Buffalo.
"There’s already a co-main event on that card [UFC 213]. I’d put just about everybody ahead [of Jones] and make them the main event.
"I just don’t have the faith right now that the fight's going to happen. I don’t want to spend millions and millions of dollars again promoting a fight that doesn’t happen."
Jones remains perhaps the number one contender to fight Cormier, while the reigning champion also addressed English fighter Jimi Manuwa after his win.
"Stop pretending you want to fight me," he said after his victory.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
