UFC president Dana White is losing the belief that Jon Jones may completely redeem himself.
After a spectacular third round knockout win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 214, Jon Jones was supposed to have his redemption story. But it all disappeared when he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs for the second time in a span of one year.
Apart from the PED-related mishaps, Jones also had some run-ins with the law. His 2015 hit-and-run case in Albuquerque led to the stripping of his title, along with an 18-month probation. In March of 2016, he was arrested for violating his probation when he was caught drag racing. For this, he opted to take a plea deal which involved a fine, 60 hours of community service, and was required to attend and complete “aggressive driving school.”
“Bones” remains optimistic that he can get himself back on track, as he had stated in a recent Instagram post. UFC president Dana White, however, is a little skeptical.
“Even worse than that, this guy was looking at jail time,” White said on a recent episode of the Jim Rome podcast (via MMA Fighting). “This judge gave him another shot and this guy was looking at some serious jail time and a lot of bad stuff and that still didn’t wake him up. If that’s not a wake-up call, you’re unfixable.”
White says he never saw Jones as the “money-only” type of fighter. The constant partying, however, is what he believes has been derailing the young fighter’s career.
“I don’t know. He’s not a ‘just about the money’ type guy,” White said. “He’s really not that kind of guy. I just think that Jon likes to party and he’s a guy that likes to go out and have fun and do whatever it is that he does, and I think the money and the fame made it a thousand times worse.”
“This guy couldn’t control himself and would completely go off the deep end,” he continued. “I’m not sitting here acting like Mr. Holier-than-thou. We’ve all gone and had fun and probably partied a little too much here and there, but he consistently, consistently kept doing it.”
“Even when he would completely f–k up, he would pull himself together and come out and completely f–k up again. Even this last time when he came back, fans forgave and he was the most popular fighter and everybody wanted to see this guy succeed, and he did it again. It’s just unbelievable.”