He who laughs last, laughs the loudest.
If laughter truly is the best medicine, then Jon Jones could be on his way to a full recovery, following both Alexander Gustafsson and Phil Davis losing at UFC on FOX 14 on Saturday night.
A week after posting on Facebook that he “wasn’t impressed” with Jones’ victory over Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, Gustafsson was bludgeoned in under three minutes in front of his home crowd in Stockholm, Sweden by the UFC’s light heavyweight primate, Anthony Johnson.
Losses are never easy, but the level of disappointment is often magnified when they come at the most inopportune time.
In front of his family and friends, Sweden’s prodigal son was emphatically denied a second shot at the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. The burden of disappointment is a lonely one for fighters, and it was definitely a feeling of isolation for an emotional Gustafsson, who buried his face into his cornerman’s shoulder.
There was no sympathy from Jones.
The reigning UFC light heavyweight champ immediately tweeted, “Not impressed Alex.” MMAFighting.com writer David St. Martin retweeted the comment before it was deleted from Jones’ Twitter account.
RT @JonnyBones: Not impressed Alex
— David St. Martin (@SaintMMA) January 25, 2015
The shenanigans for Jones may have ended with Gustafsson, but they started with “Mr. Wonderful” Phil Davis, who was defeated by Ryan Bader on Saturday night. After the fight, Jones took aim at Davis for a lackluster performance.
Wonderful? I think it's time for a new nickname
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) January 25, 2015
Leading up to his fight with Johnson back in April, Davis spent the better part of the month calling out Jones.
“I don’t dislike him. It’s his face, I don’t like his face. If he could just put on a different face, I’d like that much better,” Davis said in an interview with MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani.
In many ways, it would seem that Gustafsson fell into the same trap as Davis, who appeared more occupied with fighting Jones than making it past Johnson. There’s certainly no questioning Jones’ greatness in the light heavyweight division.
But to look past any fighter in the UFC, especially a man animal like Johnson, is laughable in its own right.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon and FanRag.
