All the talk in MMA circles these past few days have centered around the stripping and suspension of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones by the UFC for violations of their conduct policy. The UFC has announced they will immediately fill the vacant belt, as Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson are set to square off on May 23, at the UFC 187 event.
Jones has continued to mystify with his behavior after the arrest, and reports came out Tuesday that Reebok has cancelled their contract with Jones and the UFC took the action of removing Jones from their rankings pages. Despite this, Jones has not really issued any type of statement or explanation for his behavior around the car accident in New Mexico this weekend. Many questions still remain in the case. Why did he run from the press after the police booked and release him? Is Jon getting enough road work in, or he catching up on his running? Why was there drugs and paraphernalia in his rental car? Why did he not turn himself into the police, electing to wait more than 24 hours and for the police to upgrade him to a suspect before coming into face the music?
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There have been fighters, and indeed UFC Champions before who have had problems with substance abuse, and Jones may just be the latest case of this popping up. One of the things that makes boxing and MMA distinct aside from the in-ring action is boxing’s rich history, while MMA is still writing their history. Boxing is littered with tragedies and stories of fallen athletes. Jones may just turn into one of MMA’s initial tragedies, and that is quite sad.
Check out our latest video blog, in which the opening line at the books for Cormier vs Johnson is revealed.
