I get to the ceremonial weigh-ins for the UFC today and there's a press conference.
Jon Jones and Gustafsson are up there.
Amanda Nunes and Cris Cyborg are up there.
Now, this was great.
This was great in many ways, and I'm looking for the performance more than I am the reception.
We're in New York.
Jon Jones is from New York.
He got a big reception, but he had plenty of boos.
Alexander Gustafsson got a great reception, too.
So that was kind of interesting.
But I must give Jon a tremendous amount of credit.
I believe he was prepped.
I think he should have been prepped.
I don't think you should go into an exam or a test or a quiz or a press conference or
a fight without reading the book ahead of time, without putting the miles in and without
preparing for it.
I love that he was prepped.
But delivering the prepared information and material is totally different.
I think that Jon’s always had a miss on that, not today.
Not today.
This is Jon Jones’ first time public, first time in front of the camera, okay, and on
a major stage, you know, since his recent suspension.
Comes out, he looks fantastic.
He's got a great shirt on.
His body’s lean, he looks fit, he's in shape, but he also said all of the right things.
Mark asked him out of the gate—I couldn't totally hear the question but I believe I'm
correct--said, “Do you want to elaborate on…” and then I couldn't hear what he
said.
I think he said, “…the reports that you snitched to deal with USADA?”
I believe that's what Mark said.
Even if I'm wrong on that, I've got the first part right, which is he said, “Do you want
to expand upon…” something, “USADA?”
Great, because listen to what Jon Jones said: “No.
I thought I was clear the first time I talked about it.
I am content with that, choosing to look forward and look at the positive.”
Whew.
Now it's done.
Now it is done.
The cover-up is always worse than the crime and Jon Jones finally took it head on.
He diverted, sure.
He didn't answer the question.
He handled the question.
He took the question and built a bridge to another topic.
It was perfect.
It was quick.
It was concise. [00:01:15] had no followup, but guess what?
Neither did anybody else.
Every single question that was asked of Jon Jones after that had to do with him fighting
either Alexander Gustafsson or Daniel Cormier or Brock Lesnar.
But guess what?
If you're Jon Jones, you pick the opponent.
Just make sure we're talking about in-ring activity.
That's what Jon needed to achieve today.
He was brilliant at doing it.
Gustafsson wasn’t getting questions, so guess what he did?
He picked up the mic and he started talking.
Without even being asked a question, he picked up the microphone and just started talking.
I thought that was really great.
I thought Jon Jones had one other great moment in there, which is Jon Jones was saying, “Hey
listen, I didn't train for the Gustafsson fight the first time.
That's why it was so close.
I was a little bit full of myself.
I was behaving like a wild man.”
Jon’s words, not mine.
And he said, “I won't make that mistake again.
That's a really tough guy and I'm going to really prepare for him.”
So Gus comes in and he goes, “Ha, these excuses.
You're coming up with all these excuses.
I'm sick of hearing your excuses.”
Which was refreshing – a lot of people were thinking that.
Jon Jones thinks on it for a minute as Gus is cutting a promo, and then Jon Jones picks
up the mic and he says, “You don’t like my excuses for beating you, what were your
excuses for losing?”
Now, Gus responded and Gus did a good job and it was a little bit of a back and forth.
I'm just saying, I got to give credit where credit’s due.
Jon Jones was straight fire today, and it's also based on a little bit of a curve, isn't
it?
Right?
You know, if you expect a lot from a guy or he goes down, Jon doesn’t do great in those
moments.
Jon was calm and collected.
He got his points across.
He looked great while he was doing it.
He was comfortable.
He was happy to be back.
It came across without coming across arrogant, which is a huge mistake that Jon can often
make.
Jon Jones today, if these were baseball terms, grand slam.