It was not a good day for UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones yesterday: at a hearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the champion learned his fate stemming from an incident last month in which Jones provoked opponent Daniel Cormier into a brawl at a press conference for their then-upcoming UFC 178 bout (the bout was later postponed when Jones went down to injury). The result? Jones was fined $50,000 U.S., and sentenced to 40 hours of community service. For his part in the brawl, Cormier was fined $9,000 U.S. and sentenced to 20 hours of community service. The commission explained the discrepancy by saying that there was a "disparity in culpability" between the two. In essence, Jones provoked the brawl, which was caught on camera and became news fodder around the world, giving the sport yet another black eye in what has been a disastrous summer for the UFC, and MMA in general. The bad news didn't end there, however. According to Jones, he has also lost his sponsorship with Nike, a huge blow to the champion, who was the first MMA fighter to be sponsored by the legendary footwear label on an international scale (Junior Dos Santos has a deal within Brazil, and Anderson Silva later converted his deal in Brazil to a global one). That sponsorship was reportedly worth six figures to the Jones. Jones later posted a video to his instagram showing him looking sad, holding a pair of Nike shoes while listening to Vitamin's "Graduation (Friends for Forever)" and flopping on his bed, showing he's either got a decent sense of humour about the loss, or just doesn't care.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
