EA Sports yesterday announced that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will be one of two cover athletes for the promotion's first video game under its EA Sports licensing deal. The other cover athlete will be selected via an online fan vote that begins today and runs through Dec. 1. The vote, sponsored by Metro PCS, will be conducted as a weekly, round-by-round, head-to-head elimination tournament (EA Sports). UFC officials said that the official retail cover of the game "featuring both fighters will be revealed during UFC 168" on Dec. 28 (FOXSPORTS.com, 11/4). Jones said that he "hopes" the other cover fighter is Ronda Rousey, but added that he "expects the fans" are going to vote for Alexander Gustafsson. YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole noted Jones "narrowly defended his belt" against Gustafsson, winning "one of the year's great fights" with a unanimous decision at UFC 165 in September. Jones said, "I would love to share the cover with Ronda Rousey because I'm a huge fan of hers. It would be so huge for women's MMA to have her on there and just women's sports in general and really the whole sport of MMA" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/4). The CP's Neil Davidson noted UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez "has been left off a fan vote list of 16 fighters to see who joins" Jones on the game cover "after failing to come to terms" with EA. EA Sports PR Manager Shirley Chu said, "In order to participate in the cover vote, all participating athletes had to enter into a commercial agreement with EA Sports." Davidson noted previous versions of the UFC video game "were made by THQ," with fighters Forrest Griffin, Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre on the covers (CP, 11/4).
SHOW WORTHY: Sony Computer Entertainment America last night said Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera will be the cover athlete for the forthcoming "MLB: The Show 14" video game. The title will be available in the spring for the PlayStation 4, and at present, is the only licensed simulation baseball game planned for next year. MLB has not signed a license with anyone for a title on Microsoft's Xbox One. As a result, initial Sony advertising for "MLB: The Show 14" includes a tagline that the title is "the first and only Major League Baseball simulation for next-generation consoles." Sony said the Cabrera cover choice was made by fellow MLB players (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
