Enough is enough
Former light heavyweight champion, and current interim title holder (I think) Jon Jones is no stranger to controversy. The pregnant woman hitting, coke snorting, PED taking (allegedly), MMA God has had a rough couple of years, to say the least. But somehow, the Muay Thai prodigy keeps rising to the top. The media forgives him, the fans forgive him, and the fighters forgive him too…right? Wrong. It seems the who’s who of the light heavyweight division have had enough, and are calling for the ex-champ to get to the back of the line.
In recent interviews both #2 ranked lightweight of the world Alexander Gustafsson and current champ Daniel Cormier agree that not only is Jon Jones out of the title picture, he shouldn’t even be competing against the top 3.
“It wouldn’t be fair, giving him a title shot,” Gustafsson said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I’m not saying I’m going to get it. I’m just saying, after everything that happened, it’s not fair to other fighters too, who’ve been working their asses off and they’ve been fighting each other. So, not a title shot right away. Just give him a fun fight first and that’s it.” – Alexander Gustafsson
Now Gustafsson has a real point. While Jones has been messing up for things which are well within his control, other fighters of that division have been keeping their nose clean (pun definitely intended). Cormier claims he had a heart to heart with #1 contender Anthony Johnson and they both agree that Jones has no business fighting for the title. Cormier going as far as calling for the interim title to be stripped.
”Now one thing I completely disagree with, completely – and I don’t care who hears it – why in the hell would Jon still be the interim champion? That makes no sense. That makes absolutely no sense. They should not be fighting for an interim championship. That makes no sense at all. I don’t even know why he would still be the interim champion. His ass was disqualified. Take that freakin’ belt off of him. That’s stupid.” – Daniel Cormier
This whole conversation was sparked of course by Dana White hinting at an interim title fight between Jon Jones and Anthony Johnson. While any fight fan would salivate at the thought of seeing that fight, if they didn’t give it to Jon for his past mishaps. One could only be but so mad. I completely agree on the interim title being pretty much a paper weight while the current champion is still active. It makes no sense. But as far as stripping, we’ll pretty much have to wait until the verdicts out on his failed USADA test.
“I hope to God Dana misspoke, because that makes absolutely no sense. They aren’t fighting for some interim title if they fight. They can fight in the main event because it’s a big fight but it’s a fun fight. If they fight, they fight to determine the number one contender it’s not some interim championship fight. That makes no sense at all… You’d have an interim champion defending the interim championship while the actual champion is actually still there. That makes no sense whatsoever.”
While it may seem obvious why the top lightweights in the world wouldn’t want the G.O.A.T. (arguably) to be competing, their gripes are certainly warranted. With his most recent positive testing of Hydroxy-clomiphene, an anti-estrogenic agent, and a Letrozole metabolite, an aromatase inhibitor, he makes it easy for the rest of the division to call him out.
While it’s freaky to see fighter of the same class in this type of union, what really sold me was Gustafsson. He’s a mild mannered dude with just as much integrity as fighting skills, so if he’s speaking out there must be something wrong. Unlike Cormier, I don’t think he’s afraid of Jones, he’s the only one that ever really made him look human.
Jones still has to stand before a USADA judge to determine his faith. If he’s acquitted, one can guess he’ll stand to lose 6 months from the time the issue was found; if found guilty, Jones gets at least one year from USADA and possible further sentencing from the NAC.
Check out Alexander Gustafsson’s full interview below:
Stay tuned to hear all the crazy hi-jinks Jon Jones does next. What do you guys think, do you care about Jon Jones paying a price for his actions, or do you just want to see him fight?
The post Tag Team: The Light Heavyweights Speak Out On Jon Jones appeared first on Cagepotato.