Jon Jones came out and he did an interview, and in many ways I like this.
I like this for all of the wrong reasons but I still liked it.
Listen, Jon Jones came out and I think he was talking to Ariel.
I think.
I didn't see who was interviewing him.
The camera shot was locked on him.
I didn't see the host.
So if I'm wrong, it wasn't Ariel.
To whatever host it is I'm sorry I can't give you your plug, but talk to your cameraman,
not to me.
But Jon Jones had said that he is not completely sober, and he went on to say, “You know,
I still like drinking and I still like smoking pot.”
And while I will tell you in full responsibility and admittance that's not great—to the young
people listening, I'm not saying that that's great that Jon likes to get drunk and he likes
to go smoke dope.
I'm just saying from a PR standpoint of telling the truth of not creating this false, fake
nice-guy image, not trying to pretend to be the scoutmaster or the choirboy.
I'm just saying I'm a regular guy, I work hard at practice, I have my stresses, and
this is how I go let my hair down.
The host went a step further, which was to say, “Jon, do you believe that you could
end up in the same spot that you just got out of?”
meaning a failed drug test.
And he was like, “Well, yeah, yeah, I suppose that’s possible.”
And then the host I think went even further and said, “Okay, what if I told you for
the next 10 years you were going to be squeaky clean?”
And Jon kind of laughed and goes, “Ten years, that's a long time.”
All I'm speaking of from that statement was the candidness, and even if that's not great
and you want to preach and talk down to Jon Jones, go right ahead, he gave you the ammunition
to do it.
But from a PR standpoint of setting expectations and letting everybody know, “This is what
I do and I'm not Mr. Perfect.
I would just like to be judged on my athletic performances because I've been introduced
and exposed to this world for my athletic performances, and if we could just keep our
eye on that and leave me alone about what I do in my off time,” I thought he was rather
effective.
I really did think he was rather effective.
I also, you know, I'll put a bow on this real quick though, but Jon took a lot of heat for
agreeing with USADA to snitch on other athletes.
He took a lot of heat for that and I thought that he dealt with it well publicly, which
was to at one point say, “This is all I'm going to say on this matter and never speak
about it again,” and when he was asked to speak about it again he stuck to his guns,
which was to say, “I've already said everything I'm going to say.”
It would certainly appear in hindsight that a deal was made because of a clause that apparently
exists within the bylaws that say, “If you want to snitch and rat out other people, you
can get more of a reduced sentence.”
It would appear as time has gone by that they were able to activate that clause without
actually making him do it.
It does not appear that Jon Jones has snitched on anybody, and whether he didn't have the
info or he did have the info and he did snitch but it wasn't enough info for them to actually
prosecute and move forward I don't know, but whatever was done is certainly already done.
I mean, now that it's known that Jon Jones will be an informant for USADA, it's not as
though he's going to be around the circle when some of these, you know, ill-fated conversations
are taking place.
So it was a matter of whatever information he had at the time he made the deal that he
gave up, but we haven't seen anybody go down.
We haven't.
And we all speculated that he would have had to go outside of the world of mixed martial
arts.
Him being the biggest fish in the sea, he can't shoot down.
That's not how those deals are made.
So it was speculated and believed and somebody even questioned him on it, and he went as
far as to say, “I did not snitch on anybody in mixed martial arts.”
He said that, which led you to believe that it was football, led you to believe it was
the football players because he's got a couple of brothers that are both world champions,
Super Bowl champions in football.
So that was conclusion.
But I'm not sure that we don’t need another speculative conclusion, which is he didn't
give them anything.
That’s what it appears.
There has not been any headlines of anybody going down or even an investigation that's
underway that could ever be tied back to Jon.
I don’t have a full point on that as much as I'm just trying to bring that back full
circle and I do think that Jon Jones, even in saying things that are not wonderful to
say but when they are the truth and he's asked, if he's going to say anything, tell the truth,
I just think from the world of PR that Jon Jones lately has been hitting grand slams.
I think it's always been a weakness of his, and I think it was a weakness of his because
it's very hard to remember lies and perpetuate an image and a gimmick and a character.
It's very easy to remember the truth.
So when Jon comes out and he just tells the truth, we just move on and we just simply
move on.
Nobody piles up on him, and that does allow him to do what he wants to do, which is to
be looked at for his physical athletic attributes, abilities and accomplishments, and I just
think he's doing a great job right now.
Even if some of you are going to see that and go, “Wow, I can't believe he just confessed
to smoking dope and getting drunk,” I get it.
You're not wrong.
But don’t allow that to be the only message you take from that.
There's also a candidness, a setting of an expectation, even if it's low, and there's
a truth in that, which is very likeable and I think it does give him the ability to move
on.
Look, this is boring.
What I do in my private time is boring.
It's exciting if you catch me with my pants down.
It's exciting if you can use it to embarrass me.
It's not exciting if I tell you upfront.
Now all of a sudden you don’t need that photo or that image or that headline.
Nothing’s shocking about it, telling you now what you might see.
Hmm, great, not a lot to see there.
Let's move on.
Let's focus on the fight.
Let's focus on a kid’s career.
Speaking of Jon Jones, he also came out and said that now he is warming up to the idea,
the rematching Daniel Cormier and doing it at heavyweight, which I think is fun.
I think it's fun.
I'm just telling you, before we get to that fight—and yes, that is an absolute mega-fight
and I feel it, too, and I would love to go through that experience one more time with
you guys—but we do have to be very careful and very slow.
Let him get through this Gus match.
If Gus gets the jump on him, all of a sudden the call to see Jones leave his weight class,
a rematch for a world championship, it's gone.
It's simply not going to happen.
And, as much as Daniel is a factor in this, Daniel won't be a factor and I don't think,
we'll have to see but I will predict this, he won't be a factor in it if Gus beats Jones.
I think you will all more want to see Gus versus Jones the third time, in the rubber
match for the light heavyweight championship.
So let's just see how that one goes.
Let's just wait a second, let this thing play out and give these guys their space.
And the reason I bring that up, it's really us that's trying to bring them together, right?
It really is us, the fans, and the fans are willing to get so dirty and nasty to satisfy
their own craving and eagerness and curiosity to see those guys matched up one more time
that they're now willing to tarnish Daniel’s legacy.
I mean they're willing to go as far as to say, “Your legacy will never be complete
if you don’t go out there and fight Jon Jones a third time and beat him.”
Nobody means that.
That's not true and that's not fair.
That's just the level that people are willing to go to get what they want, which is to see
them fight.
And this is the fight game.
Nobody that's doing that is wrong if they think that they’ve seen a button and they
can push that button and get a reaction, get the toy to make a little squeaky sound.
You go out and push those buttons.
But that's what they're doing and I think that we're just a little bit ahead of ourselves
on that.