Jon Jones was once the consensus GOAT and then we all know what happened with the court dates, suspensions, and then USADA becoming his arch nemesis. When he made his last comeback he did it in spectacular fashion by knocking out Daniel Cormier to recapture the light heavyweight title and then, in typical Jones fashion, he failed a USADA drug test and promptly had it stripped.
He was facing a lengthy USADA suspension and then out of nowhere he had it unbelievably shaved down to 15 months. It was implied that he “snitched” to get it reduced but so far there is no proof of that. So why is that important relating to the title of this article? Simple. When Jon Jones is down and out he returns for high profile fights because we are so eager to give him another chance and let’s be real here, we all like to see him fight. He’s one of the greatest of all time and he’s still anxious to prove it.
Here’s what he said to The Mac Life (via BJPenn.com)…
I’m kind of in this space now where I feel like I don’t really have things to prove in the cage. I just knocked out Daniel Cormier in my last fight, and some people consider him to be the best fighter that ever lived, so I don’t really feel like I have that much to prove, as far as being a light heavyweight champion and defending that belt.
Right now my mindset is more about making money, even those big fights, you know, I watched Conor McGregor fight Floyd Mayweather, and it was high risk, high reward/ There’s a saying, ‘scared money don’t make money’. I gotta be brave when I get back in the game, and start challenging guys that I could possibly lose to, because that’s what people want to see. They want to see Jones versus Velasquez, they want to see Jones versus Ngannou, that’s what people want to see, and that’s where my mindset is – Jones versus Anthony Joshua, or Deontay Wilder, you know, that’s what people want to see.
Is that really what we want Jon? I think most of us want a healthy, clean, and focused Jon Jones back inside The Octagon and proving he really is the GOAT.