For all of the accolades heaped upon Jon Jones during a fighting career that has been nearly unrivaled, one bit of criticism has always followed him.
No matter how many top light heavyweights he dispatched, no matter how high on the mountain of greatness he climbed, no matter how many times he took our breath away with the things he is able to do in the Octagon, there has always been one thing that followed him.
He is fake. A phony. He had an idea of what a professional athlete should look and sound like, so he tried to present that image to the world.
He is the best fighter we've ever seen. That is just my opinion, of course, but I don't think there is much of an argument to it. The level of competition he has faced is far greater than that of Anderson Silva and certainly more impressive than Fedor Emelianenko, and Jones has mostly been dominant.
He has redefined what it means to be an extraordinary athlete in the cage-fighting business.
But despite his greatness, Jones has not been able to win the hearts and minds of fans, because they feel like he has not been authentic. He is one person away from the cameras, and then another person entirely when the bright lights are on. Fans should be in love with him for his skill and dominance alone, but they can't get past the flimsy persona he adopts in public.
There are also the mishaps away from the cage to consider. His first DWI did not help, and the positive test for cocaine late last year did not help. The car wreck earlier this year that led directly to the UFC stripping him of his championship and suspending him indefinitely seemed to be the final straw.
But if we believe what we saw in a one-hour interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani that was released today, it seems Jones has turned the corner.
There are several takeaways from this extraordinary interview, which was the first time Jones has spoken publicly on the events from earlier this year.
The first bullet point, and perhaps the most important, is that Jones has seemingly shed the persona he adopted throughout his career to try to win fans. He is himself, warts and all. He discusses the accident in full detail, never once trying to pin responsibility for it on someone else.
But more importantly, it is the way Jones talks that leads you to believe this is, after so very long, the real Jon Jones. He pauses before answering many questions. Some people mistakenly think this is a sign of Jones serving up canned answers; the truth is that it's clear evidence that Jones is carefully considering what he's about to say before he says it. He's not just telling us what we want to hear: He's thinking about the truth and then speaking it.
He curses a lot. He talks about being addicted to marijuana. He talks about his days of partying and drinking and about how he has stopped drinking and stopped smoking and how he has replaced those things with fitness and powerlifting. And it's not a facade, as anyone who has spent time with Jones in the past will attest to.
Later in the interview, Jones talks about other issues such as the UFC's treatment of him after he turned down a short-notice fight against Chael Sonnen that resulted in the cancellation of UFC 151. The UFC pinned the blame entirely on Jones, which did no favors for his popularity. For the first time, Jones speaks candidly about his disappointment in the way the UFC treated him in that situation.
And then, things start getting very interesting.
When talking about the Nevada commission, Jones casually mentions that it might be time to do something about the power the UFC wields over fighters' careers. Is this a veiled reference to a potential fighter association? Maybe. If any fighter could help lead the charge for better fighter rights, it's Jones.
Jones also talks about the recent Josh Gross report on Deadspin that detailed how the UFC knew Vitor Belfort was on steroids before his UFC 152 bout with Jones and yet did nothing about it. Most importantly, it did not tell Jones about Belfort's testosterone levels. Jones says he has not decided what to do about that, which seems a lot like he's saying he might end up suing it for sending him in the cage against an opponent it knew was on performance-enhancing drugs.
Jones also talks about the Nevada commission and how he was tested for cocaine when he shouldn't have been and how his results should have never been released. Jones says he has three years to decide whether or not to sue the NSAC for that mess-up. It is clear that he has yet to make up his mind.
The fact that Jones speaks openly about all of these things—including his dalliance with cocaine the night before a Nevada inspector showed up to take a urine sample—is a sign of major progress.
It seems that Jones has decided to finally be himself. We won't know for sure whether that's actually the case for quite some time; he has plenty to prove, both to himself and to the public. But the Helwani interview appears to be a great start. It is refreshing to hear him finally break free of what he thought we wanted to hear from him and to hear him finally tell us exactly what he's thinking.
