Jon Jones is hailed as a revolutionary force of the mixed martial arts world, but the Ultimate Fighting Championship star has proclaimed he "wanted to retire and quit" following recent struggles with drugs and alcohol.
Coupled with the pressures of his growing celebrity status, drug abuse and the burdens of a fight career, Jones' woes culminated in a hit-and-run incident on April 26, 2015. Speaking to Rolling Stone's Mike Bohn at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bones elaborated on just how much that controversy changed his life:
I wanted to retire. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go away. I wanted to move to Mexico. I wanted to erase my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so no one would be able to see me. I wanted to never do an interview again. I wanted my fans to think, 'What ever happened to Jon Jones?' I wanted to disappear from celebrity life all together.
It was the lowest point of Jones' career, which resulted in the UFC stripping him of his light heavyweight title and giving him a six-month suspension. He's now set to return against Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 on April 23.
Jones would have had a rematch against UFC 182 opponent and current light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier were it not for injury ruling "DC" out, meaning his meeting with Saint Preux will be for the interim belt.
Cormier was the last opponent to face mixed martial arts marvel Jones in the Octagon, and after Bones defeated the former in January 2015, news broke of cocaine appearing on the 28-year-old's pre-fight test results. Jones kept his belt nonetheless and got away with a fine, but murkier waters, as we now know, awaited him.
The hit-and-run incident was the real "reality check," Jones said. In the three-car collision was a pregnant woman, who suffered a broken arm, and Jones "realised that life wasn't all fun and games." Last year also went a long way to uncovering just how extreme a party lifestyle the UFC's most alluring athlete was living all the while maintaining his place as the promotion's best pound-for-pound fighter, but it couldn't last:
Pretty much my whole career I wasn't living like a champ. Fighters that look up to me would go out with me on weekends and see me get blackout wasted, weeks before a fight. Then they think, 'Jon Jones can do it. Maybe I can.'
It would be like Kobe Bryant taking a rookie out and getting blackout drunk the night before a game, then going out there and dropping 30 points the next day. That would lead somebody down the wrong path of thinking. That was the same thing I was doing.
So inherently gifted is Jones that, for a time, he was able to juggle an active social life with being arguably the most dangerous fighter on the planet, or so he thought at the time.
One particularly worrying statement is his confession there were no concerns of failing drug tests during camp, because "you were just able to get away with it." However, following the hit-and-run collision, one encounter with his children stuck with Jones and forced him to change his ways:
One of the moments that really messed me up was when my daughter came home from school and said, 'Mommy, such-and-such said daddy killed a baby. That was one of those moments where I felt so bad. Like, 'Man, I'm f-----g up, and now I'm dragging my family into this.' My fiancee didn't sign up for me getting in trouble and having to explain to our kids that their dad got into a car accident. My family didn't sign up for this s--t.
There was more recent car-based controversy for Jones after it emerged the 28-year-old had been charged with drag-racing last week, accusations the fighter vehemently denied, per Bloody Elbow's Milan Ordonez. After a string of incidents, Bones has even taken to hiring a chauffeur to keep him out of trouble, said Luke Thomas of MMA Fighting:
Greg Jackson tells @arielhelwani Jon Jones now has a full-time driver. Better late than never.
— Luke Thomas (@SBNLukeThomas) April 4, 2016
These are the kinds of steps 21-1 Jones is taking to ensure his future takes on a much different path to his past, and his impending return to the UFC may mark the rebirth of one of its most celebrated fighters of all time.
Prior to being stripped of his title in 2015, Jones reigned as champion for four years and successfully defended his belt on eight occasions before it was ripped away as a result of his antics outside the Octagon.
Jones touched on his UFC fame contributing to his eventual demise and said he "became popular for the first time in his life," an improvement that led him down a dark route that can often engulf famous athletes.
An 18-month probation sentence also alerted Jones to the fact that, while he may have felt "cool" at the time, the people he was surrounded by weren't present when he most needed them:
Being on probation, I can't go to the club, so a lot of my 'friends,' they were dudes looking to get free drinks every weekend, free joints, free bong hits. My phone used to go crazy on Friday nights when I was able to go to the club and able to smoke weed. Now that I'm sober, people realise, 'Oh you can't come out?' My phone calls went down by about half.
"It didn't make me sad; it made me glad. I realized, 'S--t, I don't have many friends.'
Needless to say, the last year out of the sport will have undoubtedly given Bones time for reflection, and if the fighter's new motivation lasts, we could be witnessing the beginning of a new-and-improved Jones.
That's a scary thought for the rest of the UFC, but after experiencing so much hardship—self-imposed or not—one of combat sports' most gifted individuals could be ready to resume his climb to superstardom.
