Jon Jones told the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) in September that he lost his endorsement deal with Nike due to his infamous brawl with Daniel Cormier during a press event in August. Jones admitted Monday that wasn’t exactly true.
“When …
Jon Jones told the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) in September that he lost his endorsement deal with Nike due to his infamous brawl with Daniel Cormier during a press event in August. Jones admitted Monday that wasn’t exactly true.
“When I was in front of the commission, I definitely worded it wrong,” Jones said on a UFC 182 media conference call. “Nike did not drop me because of that fight and I kind of owe an apology to Nike for saying they dropped me because of the fight. They actually didn’t. Nike has been known to support its athletes through much worse things than a brawl in the middle of MGM [Grand].”
Jones said months earlier his Nike representative told him that the apparel company was moving away from its association with MMA. Jones said the rep told him that he could continue on with his contract, but it was clear that he wouldn’t be getting all the things he was initially promised, like commercials.
“I said, ‘You know what, if you guys aren’t too serious about martial arts, then I don’t want to be a part of the company,'” Jones said. “Hopefully, I can respectfully leave.”
Nike agreed and gave Jones, who had just finished his second year on the deal, an out in his contract.
“It was already official,” Jone said. “Everybody at headquarters knew. My team knew that I wasn’t gonna do my third year with Nike. And then we got into the brawl.”
At that point, Jones said his rep called him and said maybe it was best to part ways a little earlier. So, that’s what happened. Jones said the actual circumstance did not come out correctly in front of the commission. Both Jones and Cormier were fined and had to do community service as penalty for the incident.
“The truth of the matter is, I did not get dropped by Nike,” Jones said. “It was a mutual thing, something we had discussed months before the actual fight.”
Jones has subsequently signed a deal with Reebok, the company the UFC will use as its official uniform sponsor. Obviously, Reebok is much more invested in MMA right now than Nike and Jones is happy about that.
“These guys are taking mixed martial arts very seriously,” Jones said. “They’re taking me very seriously as an athlete.”
Twenty-one times Jon Jones has entered the fighting platform. Twenty-one times Jones has walked away victorious (seriously, go ahead and ask Matt Hamill if he thinks he won that fight). And all but once has Jones made it look easy. Too easy.
He’s…
Twenty-one times Jon Jones has entered the fighting platform. Twenty-one times Jones has walked away victorious (seriously, go ahead and ask Matt Hamill if he thinks he won that fight). And all but once has Jones made it look easy. Too easy.
He’s made the LyotoMachidas, Mauricio “Shogun” Ruas, Quinton “Rampage” Jacksons, Rashad Evans, VitorBelforts and ChaelSonnens of the mixed martial arts world look like amateurs. Even with his limited amount of experience, Jones has managed to capitalize on his Iowa Central Community College wrestling pedigree to stake his claim as one of the best—if not the best—fighters the sport’s ever seen.
But what exactly makes Jones so much better than most of his competition? What puts the champion head and shoulders above the sea of very competent 205-pound contenders the UFC has to offer? Let us examine the ways:
Unparalleled Reach
This is probably the most obvious aspect that has made Jones such a success inside of the cage. The UFC light heavyweight champion harbors an 84.5-inch reach, about 10 inches more than what many of his former opponents have laid claim to. He’s capable of keeping most of his opponents at bay with a stiff jab or straight right, forcing some of the most vicious strikers in the division to look like beginners.
But the previously mentioned measurement—only tabbing the champion’s arm length—doesn’t do justice to what Jones actually possesses. Jones’ lankier limbs—the ones that keep him upright inside of the cage—are truly where he’s made a name for himself.
Unorthodox Striking
Having above-average reach is one thing. Being able to utilize it to one’s advantage is another. Just look at Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva who owns about a four-inch reach advantage over most of his opponents. Even with his evolutionary reach, Silva’s played victim to the knockout five times in his career. One of those times came against Daniel Cormier, a fighter who conceded an 11-inch reach advantage to the larger Silva.
But Jones has made good of his gifts. He doesn’t take them for granted by allowing himself to become a punching bag for any fighter, no matter the size. As mentioned earlier, he’s competent enough to know that a stiff jab and a solid straight right are enough to make his opponents whiff. But it’s his capacity and creativity as a striker that take him to the next level.
A stiff jab is nice. A stiff straight standing elbow is nicer. A lot nicer. And for as much as people want to complain about his controversial, but totally legal, oblique kicks, just know that he’s got those too.
Unabridged Wrestling
And while his creative striking may be enough to carry him to unforeseen heights, it’s his National Junior College Athletic Association wrestling that has afforded him such liberties. He’s comfortable throwing endless oblique kicks and spinning back kicks because he knows few men inside the cage are consistently capable of putting him on his back.
But he doesn’t just have the confidence in knowing he won’t be taken down—he also has the satisfaction of knowing he’s capable of forcing most of his opponents onto the mat too. Just ask Evans, Bader, Sonnen, Hamill, or Vladimir Matyushenko how difficult it is to not only take Jones down but stop him from taking you down.
Unquestioned Heart
There’s little to say about a man who’s been in several fights without ever really having been in a fight. As mentioned earlier, 21 tried and failed. And they all failed badly. All but one.
That one fighter took it to the champion better than any one of us could have anticipated, leaving many of us to go back and forth on who actually won that fight (it was Jones). The champion was taken down once and hit in the face more times than any of us had ever seen. He was bruised. He was swollen. He was cut.
He was beaten up but not beaten.
Much like Anderson Silva’s comeback victory against Sonnen or Frankie Edgar’s resurgent win against Gray Maynard, Jones’ victory over Alexander Gustafsson gave us a transparent view into the champion’s character.
Unabashed Confidence
Depending on the environment, Jones may either come off as confident or arrogant. He embraces those who embrace his confidence, while shrugs off those who color him arrogant.
“The Yankees are hated for a reason,” Jones told MMAFighting.com’s Dave Doyle before his bout against Gustafsson. “Whoever is good at anything is usually hated. I’m really comfortable with it. What I’d really like to focus on is how many people support me. I’ve got a lot of support. Nike comes out with things, they sell out in less than a day. Every day I get messages saying they inspire me. If one person writes me a message saying I genuinely enhanced their life, that outweighs 500 haters.”
But what else is expected of a man who—at that point—had never been tested? And even after being tested, after proving to the world that he’s capable of taking everything his biggest test had to offer, Jones remained confident. He had no reason not to be. It’s this sort of confidence, the sort of intangible aura that surrounded Silva during his historic middleweight title reign, that brings Jones to the next level.
Untapped Potential
He owns a reach that few others can match, a set of strikes that few can defend and wrestling that few other can contend with. But that’s not the scariest part of what Jones has to offer.
He’s a 27-year-old champion with only six years of professional experience under his belt. While some fighters reach their peak and begin to look like lesser versions of themselves with each passing Octagon appearance, Jones gets better. He looked unstoppable against Shogun to win the title; he’s looked pretty unstoppable since.
We may still be a few years away from seeing the best Jon Jones that Jon Jones has to offer, and that’s scary.
Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report MMA. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.
SAN JOSE, Calif.
Daniel Cormier knows the moment is coming. At some point, inside the Octagon against Jon Jones, his world will be rocked. He will be caught with a punch or vicious elbow. Maybe he gets trapped in a submission hold.
It’s going …
SAN JOSE, Calif.
Daniel Cormier knows the moment is coming. At some point, inside the Octagon against Jon Jones, his world will be rocked. He will be caught with a punch or vicious elbow. Maybe he gets trapped in a submission hold.
It’s going to happen, and then he will have to reach deep within himself.
Cormier is a man who not only is undefeated in mixed-martial arts but also has never even lost a single round. And yet he still understands what it means to fight through adversity, despair and unfathomable pain.
ALBUQUERQUE
Jon Jones is accustomed to answering the UFC’s bell with reckless abandon. And with a real sense of timing.
The man known as “Bones” for his rangy frame took his first UFC fight in 2008 on two weeks’ notice. Four s…
ALBUQUERQUE
Jon Jones is accustomed to answering the UFC’s bell with reckless abandon. And with a real sense of timing.
The man known as “Bones” for his rangy frame took his first UFC fight in 2008 on two weeks’ notice. Four seconds into his title shot in 2011, Jones used an acrobatic flying knee to make a dramatic statement: The UFC light heavyweight belt owned by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua rightfully belonged to him.
Jones has held onto the title ever since, wiggling out of a Vitor Belfort arm bar, absorbing a massive strike by Lyoto Machida and conquering Alexander G … Read the Full Article Here
Rarely does an event force would-be spectators to take part in an alternate reality, one that inexplicably forces the hands of time to decelerate, lengthening each passing day in its wake.
But here we stand, a mere six days away from the end of s…
Rarely does an event force would-be spectators to take part in an alternate reality, one that inexplicably forces the hands of time to decelerate, lengthening each passing day in its wake.
But here we stand, a mere six days away from the end of said reality, six days ahead of one of the most anticipated bouts in recent memory between two of the very best fighters the UFC’s light heavyweight division has ever had to offer. In the red corner stands Jon Jones, arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter the planet has ever seen. In the blue corner stands Daniel Cormier, the man most of us have been led to believe is the biggest threat Jones’ title reign has ever seen.
They don’t seem to like each other, but we don’t mind. In fact, that’s probably a big part of the reason most of us will willingly fork over whatever price the UFC will demand as the world gets ready to meet its rightful 205-pound king.
Read on as we break down each major aspect of the title bout before predicting the winner.
For the UFC, 2014 was an up-and-down year with multiple fighter injuries leading to flight cancellations, but despite all this, the company produced some of its most memorable fights ever.
These fights demonstrated serious displays of skill and involve…
For the UFC, 2014 was an up-and-down year with multiple fighter injuries leading to flight cancellations, but despite all this, the company produced some of its most memorable fights ever.
These fights demonstrated serious displays of skill and involved the kind of brutality mixed martial arts fans simply lap up.
However, the year was marked by the absence of some of MMA’s most bankable stars, including Georges St-Pierren, Anderson Silva, ChaelSonnen and Nick Diaz. While at least three of them are likely to be back in the cage in 2015, without them, this past year saw new stars in their divisions take the limelight
The following five fights made stars of contenders and cemented the reputations of champions.
Each fight in this list possessed high stakes, determining who would become a top contender or who would be champion. They were thrilling contests featuring brilliant performances by the fighters.
Twenty-one times