Is Jones Jones ‘different’ ahead of UFC 214? He sure sounds like it
More than at any other public occasion that this writer can remember in Jon Jones’ fight career, he seemed comfortable and at ease.
UFC 214 headliner Jon Jones gave the world plenty of news-worthy soundbites recently at his media scrum. There was his analysis of the mountainous challenge he believes light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier faces in trying to beat him in their rematch Saturday, for example.
I just think that not only is he fighting someone who has beaten him before, who trains at high-altitude, who’s younger than him, but on top of all that my weight-cut is, like, unbelievable.”
There was Jones thanking Cormier for pointing out that perhaps power-lifting wasn’t the right conditioning focus for Jones to have.
I got back to my lean self, my more endurance-based self, my more agility-based self, and I appreciate him giving me good advice.
There was Jones contradicting UFC president Dana White who said earlier at a press conference that Jimi Manuwa was slated for Saturday’s card in large part to stand ready as a last-minute replacement should either Jones or Cormier be forced out at the 11th hour.
Listen, you guys know how I get down – I do not take last-minute fights no matter who says what.
Jones also called Cormier’s posturing at the UFC 214 press conference cowardly.
As I started to walk away, then he pretended like he was coming after me. What a coward ass move. You get no points for following a man who can’t see you.
Jones admitted that Cormier is indeed in his head.
He is in my head. I think about him all the time and that’s what makes me do the things that I do.
Most interestingly Jones also pulled back the curtain a bit to admit that, their insult-filled rivalry aside, he actually believes Cormier to be a good person who he wants good things to happen for. Of course, Jones doesn’t want one of those good things to include beating him.
It’s weird when it comes to me and Daniel. At the end of the day I see who he is. I think he’s a f***ing great guy. I really do. You guys get to see him a lot more than I get to see him. He’s funny, he has good friends and s***. He’s a f***ing good dude. And so I want the best for him, I really do.
I wish he was just man enough to realize that he’s f***ing around with the wrong era. He’s 39 years old and he’s fucking with a guy who’s in his prime. A guy who honestly believes that this is his era and does everything in his power to make sure that it’s his era. If he could just swallow that and say ‘I’m the baddest motherf***er outside of Jon Jones and I can go to sleep with that because I’m still a bad motherf***er. Instead of embracing that he just comes up with all these reasons why he lost.
Perhaps more significant than any of Jones’ quotes, however, was the beleaguered fighter’s overall demeanor. More than at any other public occasion that this writer can remember in Jones’ fight career, he seemed comfortable and at ease.
Jones didn’t seem interested in sounding a certain way – professional, proper, tough. Jones’ comments didn’t seem well-rehearsed.
It actually seemed as though Jones listened to reporters’ questions, thought about them, and then gave the first thoughtful and honest thing that came to his head. Some answers were poignant, others were a bit juvenile and cutting toward Cormier, but none of them smacked of the usual plasticity that marked so much of Jones’ early career.
Jones insists that he’s sober, now, and a bit of a changed man after multiple arrests, car crashes, and drug test failures. There’s no way of knowing if that is really true or not.
Despite how Jones has characterized it in the past after aborted stays in rehab, sobriety is a life-long battle that begins anew each day, not something that can be swept aside summarily after a scare or two by sheer force of will. Still, something has indeed changed in Jones and it was evident at his media scrum.
We can’t know how that change may be connected to anything else in the man’s life, but Jones has changed. He’s changed how he speaks in public, and done so in a way that suggests he’s done trying to craft a public image.
The former champion didn’t sound like a spokesman at that scrum – he sounded like an interesting, real person. Jon Jones now seems more comfortable being Jon Jones on the mic and in front of cameras.
Hopefully, Jones is also becoming just as comfortable being himself in private, during quiet moments, when the lights aren’t bright.
About the author:
Elias Cepeda is a host of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Rounds Podcast, a staff writer at FloCombat, and has a weekly column for The UG Blog.
