The news hit the MMA world like a shockwave yesterday. UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, who was coming off Saturday’s impressive victory over vaunted rival Daniel Cormier, has entered a rehab facility, reportedly for testing positive for cocaine. Jones has asked for privacy while he goes off to take care of this problem, but there are a lot of questions that are going to come up.
The date of the failed test was Dec. 4, but he competed anyway a month later, and a followup test is reported to have come back clean. So they let him fight. Wonder what a corporate sponsor like Reebok thinks of the UFC and putting a uniform on that company’s athletes?
A few years ago, Jones crashed his Bentley in his hometown in upstate New York and was charged with a DUI. That incident seemed to get swept under the rug and has not been mentioned much, but Jones has been champion for a long-time and his toughest opponent left may be his lifestyle.
Here are the options: Stick by Jon Jones while he works through this, and hopefully he returns by year end to face the winner of Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson. Or they could strip him, and make the Johnson versus Gustafsson fight that is scheduled for Jan. 24 be for an interim title.
Jones next title defense could reasonably have been expected in the August to September timeframe under normal circumstances. If that planned fight is delayed in anyway, then it should bring into question how much leeway the UFC is willing to give their most dominant champion. They have been pushing Jones into the top spot on pound-for-pound lists and his name is starting to get “greatest of all time” mentions in some circles. This could not have come at a worse time for Jones or the UFC.
Here is a promo video for Jon Jones from a few years ago, heading into his Dan Henderson fight. It may be reading into it a little, but there was a whole lot less of that humility in the pre and post fight build up with Cormier.
