UFC 214 goes down tomorrow night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California with the main event being the second showdown between UFC Light Heavyweight Daniel Cormier and the only man to defeat him, Jon Jones. It’s one of the biggest mixed martial arts fight of the year, and it actually has a backstory that is more interesting than most video games.
Jon Jones is a prodigy. The athletically gifted fighter became a champion at the age of 23, and was largely considered to be untouchable. Even when he was doing coke (despite trying to portray a squeaky clean public image) and partying during training camp, he was able to clearly win fights. Hell, he even put on a Fight of the Year candidate against Alexander Gustafsson that led to the duo being on the cover of the first EA Sports UFC game. He also soundly defeated Daniel Cormier, and to quote the man himself he “had two great weekends. Back-to-back weekends. Cocaine one, [Cormier’s] ass the next. It was great. That?s a month for the ages.” Then came the issues. Jon Jones tested positive for cocaine. He had a car accident with a pregnant woman and fled the scene of the crime (only to come back to recover some weed). He was stripped of the title, and ended up failing another drug test (that I’m not even going to get into) in the lead up to UFC 200, the milestone event where the Cormier vs. Jones rematch was supposed to happen.
Despite all this, Jones is roundly the more liked fighter between the...