Is Jon Jones a cheater? No, but what he is can't be easily cured

Let’s start with the facts, such as we understand them to be.

Some time before what promised to be the biggest fight and payday of Jon Jones’ career, the embattled former UFC light heavyweight champion took a pill he got from a friend. You know, like you do. Unless you’re a pro athlete subject to one of the more rigorous drug-testing regimens in all of sports, in which case you don’t.

But he did. And, what do you know, the pill wasn’t what he thought it was, which sounds like the plot to a “Dawson’s Creek” episode except that apparently it really happened to one of the greatest pro fighters alive.

Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) thought the pill was Cialis, which is an erectile dysfunction drug you can only get with a prescription, which is itself something you can only get by seeing a doctor and being like, “Hey, will you write me a prescription for this,” at which point your doctor will be all, “Sure, no problem.”

Or, if you prefer, you can skip all that and talk to a buddy who’s got something that’s pretty close. While you’re at it, take him skydiving with you and let him pack your parachute. He’ll do a fine job. I mean, probably.

This, in the words of the arbitration panel, was “imprudent” on Jones’ part (via ESPN.com). That’s one way of putting it. Plain dumb is another.

But is being dumb the same as being bad? Is it the same as being a cheater? Is it worthy of any response other than a little light mockery?

These are the questions we confront as we try to decide what to make of Jones now.

When we first heard that he’d popped positive for two different performance-enhancing substances prior to his fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200, things didn’t look good. When he showed up at a hastily thrown together press conference that same week and issued more tearful apologies than indignant denials, it looked worse.

But now it’s different. Some people will never buy the tainted-sex-drug excuse, just as many of us didn’t buy it when Anderson Silva made an eerily similar claim following his own drug test failure last year.

Silva also blamed his results on a marital aid he got from a friend. He just couldn’t name the aid or the source, which left him with a defense that was the legal equivalent of getting your prescription drugs from a guy who knows about a cool website.

Jones, on the other hand, had some real evidence on his side. And USADA, to its credit, pursued that evidence and found it credible. Based on that evidence, the arbitration panel concluded that Jones “is not a drug cheat.”

He’s just a guy who does dumb stuff sometimes, which, in fairness, doesn’t exactly come as new information to the MMA community.

This is the same guy who wrapped a Bentley around a telephone pole while under the influence. It’s the guy who literally ran from the scene of an accident. It’s the guy who checked to see if he was being filmed by a cop who pulled him over, and then proceeded to berate that cop in a pointless, childish outburst. It’s the guy who tested positive for cocaine while in training for a title fight. It’s the guy who got rich and famous and then immediately bought a large exotic cat, which he then lost.

If it turned out that, for his latest trick, he’d discovered the most embarrassing way to lose upwards of $9 million, would that really surprise you?

When you put this latest blunder in that larger context, it fits a particular pattern. You get a picture of a man who acts without thinking, who tumbles into mistakes that would have been frustratingly easy to avoid, who finds new ways to pull the same old self-sabotaging crap.

What you don’t get is a picture of a cheater, some guy scheming for a way to get one over on the competition. Nothing about this man suggests detailed, careful planning.

What it suggests instead is a guy who would be on top of the mountain if only he weren’t so in love with throwing himself off. And for that there’s no pill you can get – not from a doctor or from a friend – that’ll cure what ails you. There’s just time and gravity, and they’re both working against you.

For complete coverage of UFC 200, check out the UFC Events section of the site.