Jeremy Botter: Thursday of fight week means that the guys who are competing on Saturday night are starting to, well, get a little bit tired of fight week.
They have literally answered every single question the media can throw at them on numerous occasions. I have witnessed this first hand. We journalists like to think we have a new spin or a new angle for a story, but most of the time we do not. We’re simply replicating the questions that the guy before us asked, except we think we’re a whole lot smarter than he was. We are not.
You could tell the dreariness of fight week was getting to Matt Brown, who was not in a very good mood during today’s open workout session at Georgia State University. Actually, “not in a very good mood” would probably be an upgrade on the happiness scale for Brown. But can you blame him? He’s suffered through endless media engagements to hype his “war in the south” preliminary bout with Stephan Thompson. I’d be inclined to frown a lot, too.
And then there was Michael MacDonald, who spent as much time as he could telling anyone who would listen about God and his upbringing in church.
They do not give out showmanship awards for these open workouts. But if they did, that award would go to Jon Jones. The light heavyweight champion swept into the room 35 minutes late, walked to one end of the gymnasium and proceeded to take off each individual piece of his new UFC-created line of merchandise, then headed to the mat. The congregated media swarmed around the mat, jostling for photos and videos. It was clear that the real superstar of UFC 145 had arrived.
Jones shadowboxed and hit pads, then strode over to sign autographs for fans. Jones has always been good about spending as much time as possible with the fans, and I’m amazed he did so again today, with the biggest fight of his career looming in two days. Perhaps the UFC is right, then, by anchoring their ship to Jones and pointing him towards mainstream success.
He appears to be a perfect fit for the role.