Jon Jones used to shine like Leroy Green. The man known as “Bones” was all kinds of magnificent in the cage. We watched him decimate the best fighters in the world in a way few had ever done. He became arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history.
Outside the cage, we initially saw Jones as a clean-cut individual—or “Hannah Montana,” as Jones’ teammate John Dodson recently pointed out at a UFC 191 media luncheon. There wasn’t any reason not to shine the halo over Jones' head early in his UFC career. The guy was saying all the right things and kissing babies.
He stopped a would-be thief from robbing an elderly couple and went on to defeat Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the UFC light heavyweight title in the same night. Let that sink in for a moment. The man stopped crime and won a world title in the same night. That’s some real-life superhero stuff right there. It was only natural that fans would gravitate toward Jones.
But then the cracks began to show.
Weeks after defending his UFC title against Rashad Evans, TMZ reported Jones was arrested for DUI in 2012 after crashing his Bentley into a pole in Binghamton, New York. Then earlier this year we learned he had tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite for cocaine, during a random drug test leading up to his January fight against Daniel Cormier.
These were all signs of spiraling behavior that culminated into a hit-and-run incident in April. Jones was arrested on a felony charge for running a red light and crashing his vehicle into another vehicle occupied by Vanessa Sonnenberg, a 30-year-old pregnant woman.
After the incident, the UFC indefinitely suspended and stripped Jones of the light heavyweight title.
MMAFighting’s Marc Raimondi attended the UFC 191 luncheon, where Dodson claimed Jones wasn’t the “perfect angel that everyone thought he was to be.” When the world assumed he was “Hannah Montana,” Jones came in like a wrecking ball and “Miley Cyrus” came out:
You guys keep on thinking that he's supposed to be like Hannah Montana, but really he was Miley Cyrus. …He had this safe zone and every one of them made sure he was this perfect angel. There's no such thing as a perfect angel. I don't think even think Mother Theresa was a saint her whole entire life. Oscar Wilde said that every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.
Jones is currently working hard to get his life together. He has completely disappeared from social media, and according to Dodson, he is starting to invest time with his team at Jackson’s MMA.
As far as fighting is concerned, Jones’ coach Mike Winkeljohn told Submission Radio the former UFC champion might never compete again. He is still waiting for the legal process regarding the hit-and-run to play out.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
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