Manager: Jones maturing, not turning heel
“I don’t know if this is him turning heel,” said Jon Jones’ long-time manager Malki Kawa. “I think what’s going on with Jon is that he’s maturing.”
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has a curious patter of responding to taunting fans in kind, and then deleting them. However, Jones is nearing 1,000,000 followers; deleting something doesn’t make it go away.
It popped up most recently when Jones posted a video on Instagram, soon deleted, that mockingly questioned fans calling him a coward for wanting to fight Daniel Cormier over Alexander Gustafsson.
Jones manager Malki Kawa appeared recently on The MMA Hour and discussed whether it is Jones embracing a ‘heel’ role in the public eye.
“I don’t know if this is him turning heel,” said Kawa as transcribed by MMAMania. “I think what’s going on with Jon is that he’s maturing. This is him maturing and he’s becoming more comfortable saying what he feels and not worrying too much about media backlash or people.
“What people don’t understand about Jon, is that he wants to be a good example, especially for young kids. Jon wants when people look up to him to see a guy who put a lot of hard work into what he does. Its not something that just came to him because he’s 6′ 4” with long arms. He actually worked really hard to get better everyday.
“He also has his personal side, his personal life. He also has his business side, the life we don’t see. When he was a kid, a lot of major celebrities or athletes might have looked down on him or didn’t give him that autograph and he always said that he would never want to do that to anyone.
“How our athletes are portrayed nowadays, these big necklaces and partying all the time, whether he does that or not, it’s not something that he necessarily wants out there. He also doesn’t want to come across as that guy who is brash and cocky. What he’s always tried to do is be a professional and act a certain way when he’s on camera and all that. There are certain times when he has held his tongue back and held his feelings back.
“As time has gone one, he’s realized that it’s okay to tell someone that if you ask for a fight, your going to go toe-to-toe with them. It wasn’t necessarily directed at the fans. That video was, ‘you are trying to make me out to be a coward.’ It could have been directed at the media, it could have been directed at Dana White, it could have been for the fans, who knows. That’s the beauty of Jon Jones. He’s just learning that it’s okay to be a bit more vocal and to say things.”