Professional sports continues to be an interesting industry when it comes to athlete conduct. Nearly every year, multiple controversies leave fans, experts, and even the players themselves confused about the consequences that they do or do not face. The Ultimate Fighting Championship didn’t waste any time to respond to the recent Jon Jones situation, and many writers, including my colleague Adam Martin, feel that the response was inconsistent. Yet as the UFC continues to try to be more like the mainstream sports that rule the land, its actions fall right in line with those “standards.”
For those that do not know, Jones has been stripped of his title, removed from UFC 187, and taken off of the pound-for-pound rankings by the organization. Certainly these are drastic actions. However, Jones is safe from being cut from the organization. He still has a spot on the most important MMA roster in the world. As Martin points out, other fighters were not as lucky – even if they committed “lesser” acts of ignorance.
Did Jones’ star power save him? Yes. Is this different than what occurs in other sports? No. The reason being the almighty dollar.
Jones is worth money. Will Chope and Miguel Torres, two of Martin’s main examples, were never big draws. Martin went on to name Anderson Silva, Anthony Johnson, Michael Johnson, and Abel Trujillo as others who have sketchy situations blotting their pasts, but the UFC still keeps them gainfully employed. Forrest Griffin was also brought up. At the time of his insensitive comments he still had value for the organization. If he made that same comment now, one would expect the organization to separate itself from the former Ultimate Fighter winner.
The point is that Jones is worth too much for the organization to just jettison him. Instead, it has done all it could, and hopefully pushing him out of the limelight as much as it can will allow this situation to “blow over.” That will potentially work, at least until he makes his eventual return.
The NFL is in the process of doing this with Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. The NBA did it in the past with Metta World Peace (Ron Artest). MLB had Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and every other big name that fell due to steroids. These are just a few of the stars in other sports that faced negative situations that were handled in an inconsistent manner until there was no other option outside of dropping the hammer.
Yet Jon Jones can still expect to be a major talking point in mixed martial arts for the next number of weeks. As UFC 187 approaches, that story will continue to crescendo. Then, the UFC can keep him out of action long enough for fans to have an opportunity to move on to the next hot button in the sport. And then, without warning, his name will come back up. Don’t be surprised if that happens right around the time the UFC solidifies that planned event in Madison Square Garden. Why? Because Jon Jones is worth money, and the bottom line almost always wins out.
On the one hand I agree that there isn't something right about there being different tiers of justice depending on money.
But on the other hand sometimes I feel like the more productive do deserve more for their efforts.
Example: I find it irritating that an octomom who lives off welfare gets the same vote as somebody who works hard to feed their own children.
Its the way america works, not just in sports.
If I had done what Jon did I would still be sitting in Jail.
I cant afford lawyers and bail money, becasue I'm not Jon Jones.
And if your real big pimping, even bigger then Jon,
then you'll be too big to fail and get bailed out for your own indiscretions with other peoples money like a wallstreet banker.