The biggest card in UFC history took a major hit Wednesday night when it was announced interim light heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones was pulled from the UFC 200 main event against light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier for a potential violation in a USADA drug test taken on June 16.
People make mistakes — me, you, everyone. No one can look in the mirror and say they are perfect. We look at athletes and we think the world of them. They do something very few can do and get paid money we can only imagine. What happens when they make a mistake?
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We forgive them, of course. This is the United States of America. We give our athletes a second chance. We forgave Kobe Bryant, Ray Lewis and Pete Rose. But what do we do when an athlete can't get out of his own way and keeps tripping over himself?
Jones had it made — young, handsome, moves we had never seen inside the Octagon, a charm that made you like him. If it wasn't for a disqualification for illegal elbows, Jones would be undefeated in 23 fights. He was being groomed to become the face of the UFC and MMA.
After winning the 205-pound title from Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128 in March 2011, he went on a tear the sport had never seen. He defeated four consecutive former world champions, three of them by stoppage. Jones defended his title four more times.
Many were saying he was, pound for pound, the best fighter in the world and perhaps already the greatest of all time. But we started to see flaws in the New York native early in that run.
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In 2012, he was arrested on suspicion of DWI in New York after crashing his Bentley into a utility pole. People chalked it up to Jones being young; they figured he would learn from the mistake and move on. And it really seemed as though Jones did learn.
But after his first fight with Cormier at UFC 182, it was revealed Jones had failed a drug test for cocaine. For reasons that remains baffling, he went to rehab for just one day and was deemed not to have a drug problem. Three months later, Jones was involved in a hit-and-run accident in New Mexico involving a pregnant woman who ended up with a broken wrist.
The UFC did the right thing and stripped Jones of his title and suspended him indefinitely. In September, Jones was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation and had to make 72 speaking appearances. Shortly thereafter, the UFC lifted his suspension and booked a rematch for UFC 197 with Cormier. Then Cormier had to bow out of the fight. Jones beat Ovince Saint Preux to become the interim champ.
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All seemed right once again. The world had forgiven Jones once again and he was back in its good graces. Success tends to make people forget about the bad choices.
Jones seemed to be on the right path and was saying all the right things heading into UFC 200. He was on track to becoming the greatest combat sports athlete to grace our television sets. He was going to be headlining the biggest show in UFC history. The redemption story in many people's eyes was about to be written on Saturday night. Then July 6, 2016, happened.
"Obviously, he’s got the chance to prove himself innocent before guilty," UFC president Dana White said at a last-second press conference Wednesday evening to announce the news.
Yes, he can get his B sample tested and he can come out and say he took a tainted supplement. But, the B sample never comes back negative and the tainted supplement reasoning shouldn't excuse Jones. Every athlete getting tested needs to know what they are putting in their body, especially someone like the calibur of Jones, who couldn't afford another slip up.
When is enough really enough, though? In the biggest moment and heading to make the biggest day of his career, Jones once again buckled under the pressure, this time when the lights were brighter than they ever have been and he failed us.
The theme of UFC 200 is "It's Time." Jon Jones got three chances to correct the wrongs he had committed in his life. It's time to give up on his story.
If he doesn't care, why should we?
Steven Muehlhausen is an MMA and boxing writer and contributor for Sporting News. You can find his podcast, The Fight Club Chicago, and subscribe on iTunes. You can email him at [email protected] and can find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA.
