Jon Jones hopes to restore his legacy at UFC 200
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is fighting for far more than to just regain his belt Saturday when he challenges Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 200.
Jones hopes to restore his legacy, and Cormier just happens to be in the way.
“I’m just excited to go out there and prove that this is my title and my era,” Jones said of Cormier during a conversation with reporters at a swanky restaurant in downtown Los Angeles last week. “I don’t want to share this time with anybody else. I don’t want people to say this was the Jon Jones and DC era and lump us together. I just want this to be a part of my story and my era. I’m looking to solidify it as my era and show DC was just a guy hanging on to what was mine while I was gone.”
Jones’ place in history would be secure if not for self-inflicted wounds. His only loss came as a result of a disqualification in 2009 when he got a bit too exuberant while raining elbows down on Matt Hamill and landed a few illegal 12-to-6 blows.
His history outside the cage is well-documented, from a 2012 DUI charge to a positive test for cocaine, a contentious traffic stop caught on tape and the 2015 hit-and-run arrest that led to an indefinite UFC suspension and his title being stripped.
Cormier, whose only career loss was a unanimous decision to Jones in January 2015, earned the vacant title in his absence, and will put it on the line against Jones at T-Mobile Arena in the headliner of what is expected to be the biggest card in the organization’s history.
Jones is not pleased with Cormier holding the belt.
“I think he’s one of the top martial artists in the world,” Jones said. “But I think he tries to paint a picture that it’s me and him and then everyone else, but that’s not the way No. 1 works. There’s one top dog and then the rest of the division.”
Jones hopes to once again assert himself in that spot. He returned from 16 months out of action to win the interim belt with a comfortable, yet uninspiring unanimous decision over Ovince Saint Preux in April after Cormier had to pull out of the scheduled rematch due to injury.
Jones cited several factors, including a lack of energy from Saint Preux, for the uneven performance. Cormier has said he believes Jones’ lifestyle is starting to catch up with him.
Middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who serves as an analyst for Fox Sports, shares those concerns
“In Jones’ last outing, he did not look like the same fighter,” said Bisping, who has worked with Cormier at Fox. “I’m just wondering if with all of the personal troubles he’s had to deal with, has he lost a little bit of the edge? I’m not saying he has, I’m just wondering because he did not look like the same fighter.”
Jones isn’t worried.
He called the fight against Saint Preux a momentary blip in his otherwise illustrious career that can easily be explained by several extenuating circumstances, and he’s ready to move on.
Jones also believes there’s a reason Cormier consistently brings up his past indiscretions.
“We’re not here to judge each other’s character,” Jones said. “We’re here to fight each other and entertain the fans, and I feel like DC tries to paint me as this monster so that when I beat him and delegitimize him as a champion, he can always say, ‘Well, at least I was the better person.’ He’s trying to get this moral victory over me because he knows he won’t get the actual victory over me.”
Jones, who says he is now sober, spent much of his career running from personal issues that were an open secret in the sport as he tried to maintain a pristine public image.
He has taken a new tack with so much publicity around his private life, and he hopes it will free his mind to be even more successful as a fighter.
“For the first time in my career, I’m ready to enjoy my personal life the way it is,” Jones said. “Say the things I want, be the way I want, act the way I want, dress the way I want. Just not really care as much as I used to and just be myself and allow people to decide if they want to like me or not.
“Before I was living kind of a double life and really trying so hard. Now I’m just living my life and letting people see it for it is. It feels better for me. I’m a lot happier. I wish I had this maturity and was ready to live like this when I first started. I may have been even further ahead.”
When Jones emerged from relative exile for a news conference at the MGM Grand Garden in March, he was loudly applauded.
He believes his issues may have made him more relatable. Jones, who has always been resistant to embracing a heel role, still feels he can be a role model as someone who accepts his flaws and works through them to find success and improve as a person.
His goodwill doesn’t really apply to Cormier, however, whom Jones hopes to permanently remove from his life on Saturday night.
“After I win this second fight, he’s over. He’s really over,” Jones said of the 37-year-old former Olympian. “He’ll have a great job doing the commentary work, but it will be a major blow to his legacy. That’s a lot of pressure for him. I just think this really is a make-or-break situation for him. I enjoy being in the position I’m in. I’m 28 years old and I have a long time to fight. He’s in a position where if he loses this one, he never really was the champion. I think he realizes that. So I’m excited to sit his ass down somewhere.”
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj
