Is 'Bones' Done with UFC Competition for Good?
The name Jon Jones is synonymous with greatness. In 2011, he won the title from Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, and since then hasn’t looked back. Jones has racked up a staggering 16 title wins, the most in UFC history, and has beaten fighters from eras old and new. He fought legends like Lyoto Machida and Rampage Jackson, fighters from the blood and guts era of MMA, through to the late 2010s era of greats like Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier, and then again by beating Ciryl Gane. If you’re someone who follows the sport of MMA, you’ve seen Jones fight, and chances are, he awed you every time. The decorated champion entered the UFC as a green but explosive and powerful wrestler and eventually evolved into an elite striking technician as his athleticism waned, replacing speed with skill. Jones lost once in the UFC, and it was as if he rained elbows down on his opponent; the loss was a disqualification. If you saw Jones fight, you also knew that he was rarely challenged. Besides his legendary first fight with Gustafsson, he has never been hurt, and without further consideration of a very competitive fight with Dominick Reyes, he hasn’t really been challenged, either. In the cage, Jon Jones is pure excellence.
Outside of the cage is another matter. Debatably, the career of the greatest ever is the second most notable thing about him. There is a litany of instances where Jones has run afoul of the laws of state and sport alike. Jon has been booked for driving while intoxicated on multiple occasions, on one of which he was filmed headbutting the hood of a police car and performing a hit and run on a pregnant woman. His fiancée called the authorities after he hit her, and aside from legal troubles, the MMA icon was also suspended for the use of steroids after his knockout victory over Cormier. Additionally, traces were found in his system before a rematch with Gustafsson, and the event he was headlining had to be moved. His greatness in the cage is only matched by his lack thereof outside of it.
Much has been said about his return to the octagon, including by Jones himself, who recently made enraged and seemingly nonsensical tweets after not being featured on UFC Freedom 250, which was recently announced. Getting Jon into the octagon has proved no easy task, though. He chose to fight the aged Stipe Miocic over the interim champion Tom Aspinall, who many believed would be the tougher test. The pound-for-pound great then vacated the belt instead of fighting Tom, and now he wants to come back. It seems that the GOAT is very particular about the way he will enter the octagon, and with his 40th birthday soon approaching and a life of fighting behind him, it seems unlikely that he’ll ever step foot in the octagon again.
