Jon Jones Finds Himself In A Familiar Predicament

The UFC just confirmed that Jon Jones sample submitted the day before his fight against Daniel Cormier tested positive for the steroid Turinabol and he may be looking at a ban of four years since he has had prior positive tests that led to a yearlong ban.

Obviously everything will be verified before UFC makes a statement but if the test is correct and he was using steroids he will definitely be stripped of the Light-Heavyweight title that he just won from Cormier less than a month ago and will receive a multi-year ban.

Jon Jones is considered, pound for pound, to be one of the nest fighters ever and was looking forward to the possibility of a super fight versus Brock Lesnar but at this point everything that he has worked for has been tarnished.

Even with just the announcement you can expect the prices of his cards to dip and if he does get suspended you can assume that his career is over and prices for his cards will drop dramatically. I don’t own this 2010 Leaf MMA autograph card, but it has been one of my favorites of his autographs and if it drops down to a couple of bucks I would pick one up.

The Decent Of Bones

This past Sunday Jon Jones ran a red light, it is believed that he was driving while impaired, in the early morning causing a three-car accident. One of the drivers, a pregnant woman, was sent to the hospital with a broken arm and wrist. The incident is part a continuing trend of poor choices by Jones which was made worse when he ran off only to return moments later to grab a “large handful of cash” out of his rented car and ran off again before the police arrived on scene.

The UFC put their foot down on Tuesday following his arrest by suspending Jones indefinitely and stripped him on his Light Heavyweight title, the first time in UFC history that a champion lost their title due to disciplinary reasons. Jones was scheduled to fight Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 at the end of May but he will be replaced by Daniel Cormier, the #3 ranked fighter, with the winner taking the title.

What is sad is that Jones as a person is not a bad guy. He is good family man, loves his significant other and their three children and he has put himself in to harm’s way to stop a thief who had robbed an elderly couple hours before a fight.

Many consider him to be the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world and was set to defend his title for the 9^th time against Johnson but now that is gone. Since 2012 he has made bad decision after bad decision including a DWI, a refusal to take a scheduled match, dirty fighting, slanderous slurs and most recently a positive test for cocaine prior to his last fight in December.

I think there are things that fans are willing to overlook within reason but he is looking at felony charge and possible jail time not to mention there were injuries to an innocent victim. I think there will be a mass abandonment of fans along the lines of Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Michael Vick and A-Roid. I am a Ryan Bader fan so I am not a Jones fan (he beat Bader in a 2011 fight to determine who was going to fight for the Championship) but I respected his training process and his fighting ability and this is such a disappointment and a waste of talent.

Autographs that used to sell for $25 or more as recently as December are now going for under $10 now and relics can be picked up for $2-$5 each. I wonder what the prices will be at in a couple of weeks.

 

 

Jon "Bones" Jones In The News

Around 5 AM this morning UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Bones Jones crashed his 2012 Bentley in to a utility pole in Binghamton near his Endicott, NY home. The car was totaled but Jones walked away with a bloody nose from when the air bag deployed. Following the accident Jones was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor DWI, he was then released in to the custody of a family member.

Bones has been the epitome of a champion; previously he has never had a run-in with the law and has been described as an “All around good guy”. What is strange is that last month in an interview with USA Today he said that he did not see himself doing knucklehead things or anything stupid which makes you wonder if he put a jinx on himself with those statements. As this is his first brush with the law it isn’t expected that he would be punished with anything more than a fine and probation.

As far as UFC fighters go, Jones is among the most collectible so you have to wonder if this incident will cause damage to his collectability. As long as things like this do not happen again I don’t see his reputation getting too tarnished and I would expect Dana White will stand by him. He is scheduled to fight at UFC 151 against Dan Henderson in September and as long as he continues to win I think his long term value will remain.