NSAC claims no record of UFC asking to overturn Jon Jones vs. Matt Hamill DQ

The Nevada State Athletic Commission told Bloody Elbow it has no records of the UFC or Dana White reaching out to overturn Jones’ 2009 DQ loss.

Illustration by BE Art Director Chris Rini

UFC president Dana White has been voicing his frustrations with the only loss on Jon Jones’ record since at least 2012. So much so that over the last few years, he’s even started talking about having the disqualification overturned. After White reiterated his claim that he’s actively tried to overturn the loss heading into Jon Jones’ title fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, Bloody Elbow decided to take a look at exactly what kind of lobbying efforts have been made.

As far as we can see, there haven’t been any. At least not through officially recorded channels.

On December 5, 2009, a 9-0 Jones entered the Octagon to face the 7-2 Matt Hamill in the co-main event of the Ultimate Fighter Season 10 Finale fight card. Jones was just 22 at the time, and 3-0 in the UFC and riding as a comfortable -265 favorite over the 33-year-old Hamill, who entered the bout as the +225 underdog. The referee for the contest was Steve Mazzagatti, who, according to Tapology, first refereed for the UFC in 2003. 

Jones took the fight to the ground with 2:26 left in the opening round and quickly moved to full mount, where he began teeing off with a relentless array of strikes. After a minute of ground and pound from mount, Jones threw the elbow strikes that cost him the fight. 

On the broadcast, Mazzagatti can be here to say, “That’s an illegal elbow, Jon,” before he moved in to pause the action. UFC commentator Joe Rogan immediately said, “No, you can’t do 12-to-6. The up to down elbow from 12 o’clock to six o’clock is illegal.”

While Rogan was commenting on the strikes, Mazzagatti took a point from Jones. The referee then waved off the fight as Hamill, with blood pooling in both his eye sockets, reached for his left shoulder.” 

Jones didn’t realize he had lost the bout until Bruce Buffer announced, “Due to intentional elbows, there’s been a disqualification of Jonny ‘Bones’ Jones.” 

At the time, Nevada State executive director Keith Kizer said the commission used instant replay for the first time in its history. According to Kizer, the replay showed the elbows landed directly to Hamill’s eye and because the illegal blow was part of the sequence that ended the fight, the DQ ruling was handed down.

In 2010, following Jones’ TKO win over Brandon Vera, White said of the Jones vs. Hamill fight call, “It shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened that way. He shouldn’t have a loss, so it’s unfortunate.”

“It was a downward elbow, you take a point,” White added. “Hamill couldn’t continue because his shoulder was messed up. It had nothing to do with the elbow.”