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Analysis: Jon Jones inevitably casts a long shadow over UFC 187 main event

Winner of Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson deserves belt with win, but Jones will be back for it

UFC 178 Media Day at MGM Grand

Steve Marcus

UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones attends a UFC press conference Monday, Aug. 4, 2014, at MGM Grand.

For the past several years, the Jon Jones narrative rightfully asserted that the only person who could beat him was himself.

Jones succumbed to his internal struggle last month when he was arrested by the Albuquerque Police Department in connection with a felony hit-and-run that left a pregnant woman with a broken arm. The episode forced the UFC to strip Jones of his light heavyweight title and left rivals Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson fighting for the forfeited belt in the main event of UFC 187 Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

“In my eyes and in my heart, whoever wins this title isn’t a paper champ,” Johnson said on a conference call last week. “We’re the actual champion of the weight class. We’re the No. 1; we’re the best.”

Actual champion? Sure. The best? Not a chance.

The UFC reacted appropriately in response to Jones’ latest transgression, especially after its lax handling of past incidents involving the man who’s probably the most talented fighter in the history of mixed martial arts. Nothing should be held against Cormier or Johnson — two fighters so dominant they’d conceivably already be champions in divisions without Jones— for cashing in on an opportunity that rightly belongs to them.

But it’s illogical to pretend Jones ceases to exist and ignore his seven years worth of achievements in the octagon while he’s serving an indefinite suspension.

“Jon casts such a big shadow on the division, so anytime this weight class is going to be discussed, there’s going to be some mention of Jon Jones,” Cormier said. “It’s expected.”

It’s also proper. Jones defended the same 205-pound division belt that legends like Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture once held more than anyone else — eight times with five wins against former champions during the four-year stretch that ended prematurely.

It was a run almost without an equal. Only other phenom athletes in individual sports, like say Tiger Woods, could relate.

When Woods took a leave from golf in 2009 after his own scandal, albeit of the noncriminal variety, no one around the PGA Tour forgot about him or downgraded his status as the best in the world. The biggest question was when he would return, an admittedly murkier proposition given the legal ramifications of Jones’ situation.

“I think he’ll be back,” Cormier said. “This is what he does. Jon Jones is a fighter, and I don’t think he would want to walk away from the sport under the circumstances. For everything he’s done positive in this sport, to walk away under this dark cloud would be unfortunate.”

Jones’ manager Malki Kawa said last week that he might never return. That’s even less believable than Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s much-ridiculed insistence that he’s not interested in trying to go 50-0.

Mayweather might make for a more apt analogy to Jones. The undefeated local boxer served the jail time — for a more abhorrent crime of domestic battery, no less — that Jones only potentially faces.

The scramble to fight Mayweather raged on while he sat in the Clark County Detention Center, and he remained at the top of every boxing pound-for-pound list. Meanwhile, the UFC has already removed Jones from its rankings.

If the crime can be separated from the athlete in Mayweather’s case, Jones surely deserves the same treatment.

Cormier and Johnson know it. They’re only contradicting themselves out of frustration for their fight not being able to stand alone without noise of Jones lurking overhead.

“Jon, in my eyes, is still the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world,” Johnson said. “Everyone in our weight class wants to be able to say, ‘I competed against the best, and I fought the champ.’ The part that’s disappointing is he’s not around right now.”

Jones always wanted all of the UFC’s records. He was closing in on the most hallowed one, Anderson Silva’s 11 consecutive title defenses, before losing his belt by his own doing. That crushing penalty is sufficient enough.

Jones failed in the conflict versus self, but the loss shouldn’t be viewed as if it were a career death sentence.

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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