Jones: Nike statement to NAC was ‘worded wrong’
Jon Jones: “When I was in front of the commission, I definitely worded it wrong. Nike did not drop me because of that fight and I kind of owe an apology to Nike.”
In August of 2012, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones signed a worldwide sponsorship deal with sports apparel giant Nike.
“It symbolizes something that I have been picturing forever,” said Jones at the time. “I preach about the law of attraction all the time and how if you focus on something and you apply yourself, if you do all the necessary steps and believe in it wholeheartedly, it can come to you.”
In September of this year, Jones spoke to the Nevada Athletic Commission for some 40 minutes at a hearing about the brawl with Daniel Cormier at a media event on August 4. Both Jones and his attorney noted that due to the brawl, Nike ended their sponsorship, worth “over six figures” per year.
“I’ve lost a very big endorsement of mine, one of my biggest,” said Jones. “My Nike deal.”
During a UFC 182 media conference call on Monday, Jones said that statement was not factually correct.
“When I was in front of the commission, I definitely worded it wrong,” said Jones, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting. “Nike did not drop me because of that fight and I kind of owe an apology to Nike for saying they dropped me because of the fight. They actually didn’t. Nike has been known to support its athletes through much worse things than a brawl in the middle of MGM.”
Months prior to the brawl, Nike had indicated to Jones that they were moving away from an association with mixed martial arts. While Jones could continue with the sponsorship, things like commercials were not going to happen.
“I said, ‘You know what, if you guys aren’t too serious about martial arts, then I don’t want to be a part of the company,'” said Jones. “Hopefully, I can respectfully leave.”
Nike and Jones reached an agreement to part ways gracefully.
“It was already official,” said Jones. “Everybody at headquarters knew. My team knew that I wasn’t gonna do my third year with Nike. And then we got into the brawl.”
At that point, Nike contacted Jones and suggested it was a good time to complete the agreed-to break.
“The truth of the matter is, I did not get dropped by Nike,” said Jones. “It was a mutual thing, something we had discussed months before the actual fight.”
Jones, and the entire UFC, have of course since signed with Reebok, an apparel company that wants into the mixed martial arts business in a big way.
Jones later said he does not believe he lied to the commission.
“The fight sped up the process of my losing my Nike deal,” said Jones to MMAFighting). “I had like thousands of dollars of credit left on my Nike account that I never got to spend. I had several months of monthly revenue money that I never got to receive … So I lost several thousand dollars because of that fight, so technically that fight was the reason for thousands of dollars being out of my bank that I couldn’t receive. So technically, there’s, they have nothing to come back on me for.”
Attorney Erik Magraken considered whether Jones will suffer any repercussions over the statements he made before the NAC.
If you’ve ever attended to or listened to a live athletic commission administrative hearing you will note a lot of factual statements are provided without deep scrutiny (how did those steroids end up in your system? Uhhh, I think I took some bad supplements). We now have a perfect litmus test to see how much deception athletic commissions are prepared to tolerate and it comes courtesy of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Jones admitted to wrongdoing and in asking for leniency in punishment noted that he already faced steep repercussions from the brawl leading the commission to believe he lost his lucrative Nike sponsorship due to this event. Jones now confesses he worded it wrong. In other words, he deceived the commission.
Jones apologized to Nike but its the Commission he should be worried about. This deception should not be taken lightly as it effects the integrity of their decision-making process.
NSAC Rule 467.885(3) specifically allows the commission to suspend or revoke the license of, otherwise discipline a combatant who Provided false or misleading information to the Commission or a representative of the Commission.
Now lets see how this unfolds.