No. It’s a term millions of parents hear every day from their children when asking them to do a number of things they don’t want to do.
“Make your bed little Jimmy,” to which an average child will reply with, “No, I don’t want to.”
It’s a daily struggle, having to maneuver around those two simple letters. How do you get someone to do something they don’t want to do, but should do? Usually kids have something that motivates them into doing chores or other boring activities.
In the case of UFC champion Jon Jones, it’s his “brand.”
The term “brand” has become a common phrase used in today’s money-minded UFC. A fighter’s “brand” can include a number of things from their t-shirts to their image. Prior to Jones, a recent example of a fighter protecting their brand was Rashad Evans.
Evans earned a title shot, but chose to sit on the sidelines to allow Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to recover from knee injuries. The time off was likely torture for the competitor and ultimately cost him dearly, as he himself was forced out of the title match with a knee injury.
The former UFC champion received a great deal of backlash from fans about protecting his brand, and it certainly did little to change fans’ perception of Evans being cocky and selfish.
Now those words, among others, will be used to describe the current champion Jones. After turning down a fight against Chael Sonnen — who has yet to step into a gym since the loss to Anderson Silva — because it would be a mistake, Jones thought he was protecting his brand.
The heat from fans about a champion turning down a challenger will likely create a stigma about Jones for the rest of his career. The man who happily accepted the chance to win the title on short notice, became sponsored by the UFC itself, and openly said he would never say “no” to the UFC, is now public enemy number one.
I think I’m a good company guy. The UFC asks me to do anything and I always do it, and I never tell them no for anything. I’ve had to do more marketing than any other fighter because I say no to absolutely nothing. I don’t think most champs are like that.(MMAWeekly)
Ironically enough, the paragraph before this quote is Jones talking about keeping his “brand” clean and the UFC not having to worry about him making them look bad by getting a DWI or “anything like that.”
How is that “brand” doing now?
Not only has it been dragged through the mud a million times today and likely will be many more times throughout the rest of his career, but Jones gained virtually nothing by saying no to the UFC.
Before saying no to Sonnen, Jones openly came out against fighting the No. 1 contender after Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida.
I don’t want to fight Lyoto Machida…He was my lowest pay-per-view draw of last year.No one wants to see me fight Lyoto Machida. I don’t want to fight Lyoto again. Lyoto is high risk and low reward. (ESPN)
Although it isn’t official, Jones will now likely have to put his belt on the line at UFC 152 against Machida.
So Jones told the UFC no in order to “protect his brand” because he didn’t want to fight Sonnen, but now faces Machida, who also doesn’t do anything to promote the champion’s “brand.”
What exactly did Jones get out of this equation?
He avoids fighting a guy who isn’t in fighting shape, completely destroyed his entire public image and likely his reputation among his fellow fighters only to be put in the same situation he had with Sonnen.
So, congratulations should go to the UFC champion. He has totally lost any fanbase he may have had with the MMA world, possibly damaged his relationship with his precious “dream sponsorship” with Nike, lost his company millions of dollars, and also cost thousands of dollars to the other fighters on the UFC 151 card.
That “brand” must be worth a lot these days.
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