Jon Jones has irrevocably damaged his reputation with the UFC and, more importantly, with fans. In fact, his recent actions have made him the most hated man in the entire UFC roster.
The deluge of hate stems from the cancellation of UFC 151. UFC president Dana White was forced to scrap the event when Jones, the current UFC light heavyweight champion, refused to defend his title against Chael Sonnen on eight days notice when the previous challenger, Dan Henderson, withdrew due to injury.
Backlash, hate, and overall miasma from the MMA community has never been this palpable—not even when Nick Diaz vs. Georges St.Pierre was canceled, when Anderson Silva danced around Demian Maia for nearly a half hour, or when Alistair Overeem failed his drug test.
After all, how many of these fighters had a shirt made to mock them only hours after their most notable faux pas? And how many were buried by a rival on ESPN that same day?
Jones PR team should be concerned, especially since this hate wasn’t just a result of “ducking” Chael Sonnen but has been building up over a long period of time.
Many fans never really bought into Jones’ shtick of being the humble, pious Christian. They believed that it was an act and that Jones was actually cocky, egotistical, and arrogant—and Jones kept giving evidence to their claims.
First Jones dissed toy UFC belts, saying that children obtaining replica belts wasn’t fair since they didn’t have to work for them. Then he was apprehended for a DWI days after stating that the UFC and potential sponsors never had to worry about him doing something like that.
Then this UFC 151 scenario took the churning pot of Jones haterade and made it completely boil over.
“The ironing is delicious,” as Bart Simpson would say. In trying to preserve the power of his brand and his image by not taking what he apparently perceived to be an unnecessary risk, he ended up destroying his brand, his image, and likely destroyed any chances at an amicable relationship with his employers.
Jones’ reputation will forever be marred by not accepting the fight with Sonnen. He’ll be called a paper champion, a coward, a ducker and worse before his career is through.
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