Below is an updated version of the story. It was first thought that Jones suffered an open toe fracture, but it appears that the injury was an open toe joint dislocation. Dr. Silverman has provided new comments.
Jon Jones defended his light heavyweight title for the fifth time on Saturday despite suffering an open toe joint dislocation to the big toe on his left foot.
Jones defeated Chael Sonnen by TKO with 27 seconds left in the first round to retain his title, but the talk after the fight was how Jones continued to battle after suffering the gruesome injury. You can see a video of the incident below at the 1:06 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6JxKrxwIQ
As the video shows, Jones suffered the dislocation after his big toe caught on the floor as he was sliding forward. Luckily for Jones, neither he nor the referee knew how seriously he had injured his foot.
When discussing the injury in a press conference after the fight, UFC President Dana White said if the refs had known how bad the break was “they would have stopped the fight [at the end of round 1]. That’s a fact.”
Trainers addressed the toe while Jones gave his post-fight interview in the ring. He left the arena without assistance, but he later went to the hospital to undergo surgery.
Jones said on Twitter that his bone broke through the skin. He tweeted early Sunday morning that his big toe was back in tact and that he had undergone a successful operation.
All done, heading out pic.twitter.com/6DBCIrD5VI
— BONY (@JonnyBones) April 28, 2013
Dr. Silverman comments
It seems that Jones didn’t have a fracture. Instead, he simply sustained an open toe joint dislocation.
The joint that Jones dislocated had to have been the Interphalangeal joint of his left great toe. This is the smaller of the two joints in the big toe. While most people who follow sports are familiar with traumatic injuries to the large toe joint (the classic Turf Toe Football injury), injuries to the interphalangeal are rare. Dislocations are exceedingly rare and the first report of an open dislocation appeared not too long ago.
Sprains to this toe joint are often self treated and only require a doctor visit if long term problems arise. Long term injuries include cartiledge disruption, pain, swelling and decreased push off power.
Jones is going to need to rest this joint. For the next three weeks it will need to be splinted so that the ligament can heal in the correct position. After that, he can begin gentle range of motion exercises, but he should not stress the joint until good scar tissue has formed around six weeks.
Longer term, he is at risk to develop osteochondral injuries and arthritis. Given his demonstrated pain tolerance, I bet he ignores any pain from this joint for many years.
Related source: ESPN, Huffington Post