"Why Don't You Like Jon Jones, Robbie?!"
Every time that Jon Jones competes in the octagon, I make it pretty clear where I stand on the guy: I hate him.
Jon Jones is my least favorite fighter in UFC history, and this is an opinion that a lot of MMA fans DESPISE me for. Well – it’s an opinion that Jones’ fans despise me for, and let me tell ya – Jones has some of the worst, most infuriatingly annoying fans on the planet.
Any time I say something even slightly negative about the guy – no matter how true/even related to his skill the comment is – my notifications are flooded with just the cringeiest “U MAD??? HE’S THE GOAT SHOW HIM SOME RESPECT” tweets imaginable. It’s an absolute dumpster fire in the mentions and replies of any tweet I’ve got where I utter his name, that all pretty much look like this now…
Here’s a small sampling of the intelligence, creativity, counter-arguments, and variety in these tweets, though:
Nice, guys. You got me. Boom roasted.
Now let me make one thing very clear before I get into all of the reasons why I hate Jon Jones – he is the greatest mixed martial artist, skill-wise, of all time. I have no qualms or issues with admitting this, and never have. He’s the GOAT in that cage. Best to ever do it. Once in a lifetime talent. I’d never argue against that.
Jones’ GOAT status is actually a big part of the reason why I can’t stand the guy, as I can’t look at him or his career without just seeing a whole bunch of wasted potential. Let’s just get into what I mean by that, though.
Exhibit A: The Hit-And-Run
On the morning of April 27th, 2015, Jon Jones – after a night of partying – ran a red light, crashed into a pregnant woman’s car, broke her arm in the accident, and fled the scene on foot immediately. He returned to the car to retrieve the pot and bowl he had left in the center console, but couldn’t find it, so he once again ran away from the wreck, completely unaware of the condition the woman he had just injured was in.
I feel like could pretty much stop right here, and feel that my point has been made. You do this, you’re a colossal asshole. Plain and simple.
“Everybody makes mistakes”, though, yeah? If this was the ONLY incident of its kind, we could probably chalk it up to that. Just a horrible, horrible mistake.
This wasn’t the first incident of its kind, however, and it wasn’t the last…
On November 24th, 2011, Jones was taken into custody by the Albuquerque Police Department for drifting in the parking lot of a strip club with a suspended license. This one ain’t too bad. I’d actually chalk this up to “everybody makes mistakes”, and Jones having an absurd about of fame/success at a young age. Shit happens. Excused.
On May 19th, 2012, Jones wrecked his Bentley – after a night of partying, of course – by wrapping it around a pole in Binghamton, New York. He injured the two female passengers in the vehicle with him during the accident, and later pleaded guilty to DUI. This one ain’t great, especially keeping the past incident in mind. Already getting past the “people make mistakes” excuse, for me.
On April 27th, 2015, the hit-and-run we just discussed happens. You remember? It’s the one where he broke the arm of a pregnant woman and ran away.
Jones got off with zero jail time and 18 months supervised probation for that, and violated his probation just six months later, when he was jailed for drag racing around Albuquerque. There’s actually body cam footage from this arrest, which captures Jones calling the cop a “fucking liar” and a pig, which can be seen below…
…but honestly, the whole arrest is a bit sketchy and I’m definitely not fully on the cop’s side. I’ll be the first to incriminate Jones for his all of his wrongdoings, but I do think there was a possibility that we just had a dude who loved abusing his power as a police officer here. He comes off like a total dick in the footage.
If you’d like to hear Jones’ side of the hit-and-run, here is a clip of him telling the story of the Joe Rogan Experience…
Exhibit B: The Failed Drug Tests
On January 6th, 2015, just three days after finally fighting and defeating rival Daniel Cormier, Jon Jones checked into a rehab facility after it was revealed he tested positive for cocaine thirty-days prior to the UFC 182 bout. Truthfully, I couldn’t give a shit less about this, a grown man doing coke in his own time – whatever – but in mentioning everything I’m mentioning, this definitely plays a factor as it was the first indication that the UFC Light Heavyweight Champ had a real issue.
On July 6th, 2016, Jones tested positive for metabolites of clomiphene and letrozole three days prior to his UFC 200 rematch with Daniel Cormier, cancelling the biggest card in company history’s main event. Jones cried his eyes out at a press conference held the following day to address the doping violation, swearing up and down that he has never taken steroids in his life, and that this was all a big mistake. You want watch highlights below…
Jones later cites that the reason he tested positive for these banned substances was because of “dick pills” he had taken for his erectile dysfunction, something I wasn’t aware that twenty-eight year old, world class athletes regularly dealt with. Jones claimed the pills were from Eric Blasich, a teammate of his, and labeled “Tadalafil”.
At the time of this order, Blasich also ordered straight clomiphene (used commonly when coming off a cycle of steroids), which only came to light after USADA pointed out multiple inconstancies in the timeline of Blasich’s testimony, forcing him to reveal the second order he tried to keep secret. BloodyElbow also states that “Tadalafil” and clomiphene both are only available with a prescription in the US, but Blasich didn’t have a prescription for either. Interesting!
Oh, and this all took place after Jones returned from a fifteen-month suspension where he saw a complete and total body transformation he credits to powerlifting.
On July 29th, 2017, Jon Jones returned to the UFC after serving a fifteen-month suspension, and knocked out UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier via head kick in the third round of their UFC 214 main event – in truly devastating fashion.
On August 22nd, 2017, it was revealed that Jon Jones once again failed a USADA drug test taken the day before his return to the UFC, this time popping for the anabolic steroid: Turinabol. Jones’ manager demanded the sample be tested again, so it was, and it came back positive once again.
Jones was stripped of the Light Heavyweight Championship on September 13th, 2017, becoming the first fighter in company history to be stripped of a title three times. He was also the first fighter in company history to be stripped of a title twice.
After serving another fifteen-month suspension, Jones was booked in a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship rematch bout versus Alexander Gustafsson, set to take place on December 29th, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On December 23rd, 2018, just six days before Jones’ return to the octagon, UFC 229 was moved from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, as Jones tested positive for a trace amount of the anabolic steroid he was suspended for the year prior, we’ll call the “picogram” from here on out. This picogram showed up in a bunch of his tests leading up to this fight, many of which were hushed until this finding, as USADA instated a policy that doesn’t require them to publicly reveal who’s testing positive and who isn’t until full investigations are held just days after the steroid was found to be back in Jones’ system. Nevada wouldn’t commission Jones to fight, but for some reason, California would, so the fight was pushed there.
Jones claims this “picogram” may linger in his body for the next seven years, while repeatedly using the phrase, “it’s the equivalent to throwing a pinch of salt in an olympic-sized swimming pool”.
As of the lead up to his fight this weekend at UFC 235, the picogram was still in his system.
Chael Sonnen also told an unconfirmed but veeeerrryyy interesting story on the Joe Rogan Experience a few ears back involving Jones HIDING UNDER THE CAGE at the JacksonWink Gym for EIGHT HOURS to avoid being drug tested, found below…
Exhibit C: The Cancellation/Ruining Of UFC Cards
So this point pretty much goes hand-in-hand with the failed drug tests, but I felt it deserved its own exhibit as well.
UFC 151 was the first cancelled event in company history, called off when Jon Jones refused to accept a fight with Chael Sonnen on short notice after his originally scheduled opponent, Dan Henderson, pulled out of the main event with an arm injury. Which – fine, right? Like, I get it. Accepting fights on short notice is always commended, as it’s a ballsy thing to do…but the “GOAT” who just completely an entire fight camp couldn’t fight a past-his-prime Sonnen who’d just rolled off his couch?
UFC 187 was originally scheduled to be headlined by Jon Jones vs Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, but Jones was replaced by Daniel Cormier after he was suspended by the UFC following his hit-and-run accident – the one where he hit the pregnant woman with his car and broke her arm, and then ran away.
UFC 200 was supposed to be the biggest and best pay-per-view in UFC history, headlined by one of the sport’s biggest grudge matches ever, Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier, but Jones tested positive three days prior to the event and had the main event called off entirely. Daniel Cormier accepted a fight with Anderson Silva on two days notice, and the card was headlined by Miesha Tate vs Amanda Nunes for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship.
UFC 232, as I just mentioned, was set to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, but was forced to move to Los Angeles on six days notice because of a peculiar drug test of Jones’ that couldn’t get him commissioned to fight in Nevada. California approved of “Bones” fighting, and the event sold out in the end, but many fighters lost money due to this change, and their new need to pay California fighting taxes, and thousands of fans in Las Vegas missed out on a pay-per-view they’d bought tickets and arranged travel to months in advance.
Exhibit D: He’s Just A Cunt
Over EVERYTHING ELSE, here’s the real reason I hate Jon Jones: he’s just a cunt. He takes zero responsibility for his own actions, plays the victim constantly, at every turn, throws on a phony “nice guy” act upon every return to the cage, and a lot of the time, comes off like a complete and total sociopath.
We first caught wind of this in the build to his first fight against Alexander Gustafsson in 2014, where he attacked a couple Swedish fans on Instagram with extremely homophobic comments, calling them “fags” and “faggots”, while also stating, and I quote, that “Homosexuality is a sin.”
Jones later denied that he was the one who made the comments, and cried hackery. Ok buddy.
There’s the eye-poking, of course. Nobody has committed more eye-poking fouls in the octagon than Jon Jones.
Jones admits to doing this and using it to his advantage, stating “I do poke people in the eyes. It’s very illegal, but I do it.”
He’s a dirty fighter, plain and simple. Greatest dirty fighter in the game, but a dirty fighter nonetheless.
Jones is the fakest, phoniest, and most condescending human being on the planet, DESPERATELY trying to be the good guy, showcased PERFECTLY by this clip of Brett Okamoto interviewing him after his win on Saturday night…
…or by the way he opened his post-fight interview with a personal friend of his, Joe Rogan, by innocently asking, “So is your real name Joseph? That’s cool!”
He’s honestly like a sociopath or something.
Back in December he lashed out at a female reporter for asking a very valid question about his latest failed drug test, smugly telling her to move onto her next question, asking somebody to remove her, and then told her to sit down (she was sitting down) and ask some better questions, requesting “better journalism” while telling her that she sucked.
He “apologized” after the fight.
Daniel Cormier, Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson, and other rivals have all accused Jon of being “fake” when the cameras are on when he attempts to be a great guy on a “comeback journey”, preaching the importance and need for second chances, and Jones confirmed that he puts on an act for the public in 2014, stating that he “has a job to do”.
I could bring up the fact that he cut a plea deal with USADA to lessen his suspension involving him snitching and ratting out on a bunch of other steroid users, but I won’t. He’s helping clean up the sport on that one, yeah?!
There’s these private messages released by Tyson Griffin almost a year ago now that show just how marshmallow soft Jones is when criticized…
I actually think both parties there come off poorly, but Jones especially.
Jones walked out of an interview just a few months ago when asked about his preferential treatment…
…which seems like completely normal behavior out of an innocent person!
It wouldn’t be hard for me to go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, with examples of Jones being an asshole, but I’ll stop right here.
I’m not asking Jones to be a role model, and I’m not denying his greatness in the cage. I’m not even asking you to start hating on him. I am, however, asking you to stop questioning why I don’t like the guy, because there’s plenty of reasons for that, and pretty valid reasons, in my opinion.
For the Jones’ fans who will question my fandom to Conor McGregor, and the level of hypocrisy behind that, considering all I’ve said in this blog, I say: I like Conor McGregor. I don’t like Jon Jones. Like you would for members of your favorite teams, I make excuses for my guy. Like you would for members of your least favorite teams, I look at Jones under a microscope and scrutinize him at every chance I get.
So there you have it. That is why I don’t like Jon Jones, and look at his career and body of work as wasted potential, and a complete and total black eye on the sport.