Throughout his professional life, Jon Jones has exhibited a proclivity to goof up. His transgressions have been numerous, from a hit-and-run to a DWI arrest to a positive cocaine test and beyond, yet somehow he has avoided torpedoing his career. And he’s not exactly holding on by a thread. An amazing thing about him is that when the time comes to compete, his distractions haven’t been distractions at all.
The troubles all seem to evaporate when Jones gets to work. In the Octagon, he is MMA’s Mr. Perfect.
It is a dichotomy that is both head-scratching and stunning, bringing a new context to the success he’s had. In 22 fights, he’s been soul-crushingly dominant, powering through both opponents and the brief moments of adversity they’ve provided. Even his one "loss" was a one-sided bashing that ended in a disqualification.
Indeed, his biggest challenges often come in periods of mundanity and routine.
Which is why Saturday night’s UFC 197 matchup comes with a rare question mark. Almost since the day he stepped foot into the UFC for the first time—ironically, in a short-notice pairing—Jones has faced one significant opponent after another. Since defeating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in March 2011, he’s been involved in eight straight title bouts.
Ovince Saint Preux is a departure from everything that has repeatedly spurred Jones to rise to the occasion. Saint Preux is not a big name, does not offer a fearsome reputation and is not considered a particularly dangerous threat. Depending on sites and betting lines, Jones is as much as a 1-6 favorite, per Odds Shark.
To Jones, OSP is an unknown commodity. OSP is not DC. Prior to the fight announcement, Jones said he had met Saint Preux once before, but other than that, OSP was totally off his radar.
“Outside of that I honestly had never seen him fight once. Not even a highlight video,” he said during a recent media conference call.
It's quite a change for someone who was preparing to restake his claim to the title belt that he never actually lost. Daniel Cormier may hold it, but he is largely considered something of an impostor king, merely good enough to satisfy most in the absence of the rightful ruler.
By beating Saint Preux, Jones will get an interim belt, but what could that mean to someone who’s already held the real thing, and for so long? Not much, probably, leaving some to wonder whether the bout has the makings of a trap fight.
Jones, after all, has acknowledged lackadaisical approaches in his past, most notably in his closest contest, a five-round decision against Alexander Gustafsson in which he later claimed to radio host Jim Rome that he went “80 percent.”
It’s easy to envision a scenario where he falls back into the same mindset.
While he recently explained that he’s immersed himself in studying Saint Preux over the last few days, it can’t be an easy switch to flip a man from relative insignificance to imminent threat. Because of that, Jones will again be forced to play a mental game with himself, essentially the same one he’s played in the past.
For Jones, there are times it’s about the opponent and there are times it’s about him. This time, it’s more of the latter. Saint Preux, for all of his physical gifts, has never quite flashed the next-level skills and fight IQ to worry a transcendent talent like Jones.
Still, OSP has enough strength, power and durability to offer the resistance to make things interesting. Enough to make a disinterested participant look bad and maybe even ruin his night.
Jones was invested in Cormier in a way that Saint Preux simply cannot bring out of him. The Cormier rivalry was organic. Prior to their first fight, the Louisianan was undefeated and an Olympian, and he could match or exceed some of Jones’ top accomplishments. That raised the stakes. Even though Jones has already defeated him, seeing Cormier parade the belt around—a belt that is ostensibly his—creates another territorial battle that does not exist with anyone but him.
In a way, Saint Preux is another distraction on the way to the real goal.
“One thing with me, I’ve been really fortunate to have a strong mind toward fighting and no matter what’s going on, I’m able to throw it all aside and just compete at a really high level consistently,” Jones said on the recent conference call.
That is true. It’s not one of the things he said because he thinks it’s what the world wants to hear. But it’s also something he’s going to have to summon again Saturday.
After all of his court cases, emotional upheaval, weight lifting and training camp, there’s no DC waiting for him at the end. There’s no undisputed title. It’s Jones against Saint Preux, which is to say it’s Jones against himself. That’s been the source of both his greatest achievements and biggest letdowns.
Until now he’s been able to separate his personal and professional lives. He claims to be sober and focused, and any decent person hopes it to be true. And any curious person has to wonder how such a change would affect an outlook. Sobriety gives one more time to think and reflect and assess life and your place in it.
When this fight was announced, Jones said a curious thing about it.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Jones said:
I just told Lorenzo [Fertitta], whoever you need me to fight, I want to make things right for [the cancellation of] UFC 151. I want to do something for my fans, something positive. I know people who have been saving up months to make it out to Vegas for this fight. I know guys who, this is their anniversary gift or birthday gift from people, and I was like, you know what? I've put my fans through so much already. I need to get out there and just put it on the line. So I said I'll fight anybody.
So this is different, and this is risky. Jones might just blow out Saint Preux on Saturday, but what if he doesn’t? What if things get testy and grimy? Will he still be able to summon that final gear that allowed him to grit his way out Vitor Belfort’s armbar and spinning-back-elbow Alexander Gustafsson to Wobblytown when the chips were down?
Is the motivation the same when it’s no longer for you or for the highest stakes?
Only Jones knows the answer to that. He also knows that his words don't really matter. Not to the legal system, and certainly not in the cage. In both instances, only his actions can prove that his approach has matured.
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