He’s the guy you love to hate but can’t take your eyes off of.
His name is Jon “Bones” Jones and he is the future of MMA according to some pundits. He has provided fans with some spectacular highlights in his UFC bouts. He seemingly has no weakness as is evident by his impressive, unorthodox method of striking combined with his impressive wrestling ability.
Jones also presents a rare talent in the MMA world. The ability to make people pay $50 to watch him succeed and fail. People have become so entranced by his personality as of late, his pre-fight interviews almost mean as much to fans as his performance in the cage does.
The last man I can remember being hated and liked by so many people at the same time is Tito Ortiz.
Ortiz burst onto the scene with a 31-second knock out of Wes Albritton, but that is not the moment he became a star. After beating Guy Mezger, Ortiz donned a shirt that read, “Guy Mezger is my *****”.
This caught the ire of Mezger’s coach, Ken Shamrock and thus, one of (if not the first) the UFC’s “mega feuds” was born.
Although most fans believed Shamrock was no match for the powerful Ortiz, many believed Chuck Liddell was Ortiz’s kryptonite.
Liddell had arguably faced tougher competition but the title fight between the two never materialized. This lead fans to believe Ortiz was ducking Liddell to keep his belt.
The situation became even more blurred when Ortiz claimed that he and Liddell were friends and wouldn’t fight each other while Liddell replied that there never was a friendship.
Ortiz’s cocky attitude while avoiding his toughest challenge made him one of the more disliked fighters of his time.
Eventually Liddell and Ortiz did meet in the cage and the results went the way most fans pictured it. Ortiz struggled to wrestle Chuck to the ground and Liddell blasted Oritz with one of the most thunderous combinations seen inside the Octagon.
Jones didn’t go overboard to gain attention like Ortiz did, but he still has a collection of moments that culminated into a big one.
The first event took place following a UFC on Versus event. Jones was speaking in the post fight show and admitted that he would fight teammate Rashad Evans if Dana White wanted him to. His reasoning was that he did not want to get fired.
Jones must’ve completely forgotten that Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Mike Swick are all still employed by the UFC.
Immediately after hearing this, Evans, who had been a self proclaimed good friend with Jones, became angered at the young prospect.
Evans’ subsequent knee injury allowed Jones to slip into Evans’ place against then champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. It was this match that provided fans with ammo in the anti-Jon Jones crusade.
Before the fight, Jon Jones began signing autographs, “Jon Jones Champion 2011.” Fans became turned off of Jones and his “forced” humble attitude.
Following the destruction of Rua, fans were foaming at the mouth for the prospect of Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans in a title fight. The two men engaged in a war of words that involved their coaches and even some racial barbs.
The mega match was not to be however as Jones pulled out of his fight, citing the need for hand surgery. Evans, who had waited over a year to receive his title shot, was forced to take a fight against young prospect Phil Davis.
After a replacement for Jones’ was found, his manager released a statement saying Jones wasn’t going to do the surgery after all. Worse yet, Jones’ manager said it was an old injury that Jones had been fighting with since his college days.
Almost overnight, the blogosphere became lit up with “Jon Jones is scared of Rashad Evans” theories. Although not as clear as the Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz predictions were, a large group of fans believe Evans has the tools to defeat the seemingly invincible champion.
Many fans and fighters are picking Jones to beat Quinton “Rampage” Jackson this Saturday night at UFC 135, which means Evans would be next in line for a title fight. Regardless of the predictions, fans are going to tune in to see Jones dominate another world champion or to see him be knocked unconscious.
The real winner in this situation, as was the case with Chuck and Tito, is the UFC. If Jones wins, they have their mega fight with Jones vs. Evans. If Jones loses, they could still conceivably make Jones vs. Evans while at the same time have the ability to recreate one of their more successful PPVs with a Evans vs Rampage rematch.
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