The UFC 135 press push is in full swing. The main event of the card sees former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson take on current champ Jon Jones. Both men made an appearance last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live to hype up the card.
Sitting alongside Dr. Phil, Jackson and Jones exchanged the usual and expected barbs with the UFC championship sitting on Kimmel's desk.
Here's part 1, part two is after the jump:
I couldn't help but get hung up on Jones while watching the video. He continues to strike me as incredibly phony. Now, before someone yells at me about "being a journalist" and how I'm not supposed to have opinions; I'm a blogger, not a journalist and my job is to speak honestly.
Jonathan Snowden has a theory on why many fans are rejecting Jones:
I'm also a lifelong boxing fan and spent years worshiping Roy Jones Jr. Like "Bones," Jones ran through the competition until he lost by DQ. Jones was close to stopping Montell Griffin, before Griffin took a knee but the ref's slowness jumping in and Roy's aggressiveness led to him landing two late, illegal blows and being disqualified.
Gifted athletes are something I generally embrace so it's not a matter of that he breaks through expectations with his gifts. With Jones there is just something "off." I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is yet, but there is just a sense of overwhelming phoniness every time I watch him in a situation like this.
Follow after the jump for part 2 of the video.
SBN coverage of UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage
Part 2:
Sitting alongside Dr. Phil, Jackson and Jones exchanged the usual and expected barbs with the UFC championship sitting on Kimmel's desk.
Here's part 1, part two is after the jump:
I couldn't help but get hung up on Jones while watching the video. He continues to strike me as incredibly phony. Now, before someone yells at me about "being a journalist" and how I'm not supposed to have opinions; I'm a blogger, not a journalist and my job is to speak honestly.
Jonathan Snowden has a theory on why many fans are rejecting Jones:
Mixed martial arts has always been different than traditional sports. We're told the fighters are just like us. Regular folk, college graduates, achievers who just happen to work harder and have scary levels of dedication and pain tolerance. Jones is a departure from that. He's so obviously gifted that the standing narrative doesn't fit. Jones' isn't a story of hard work and dedication. It's a tale of physical gifts. He's not just like the rest of us - he's been in the spotlight since he was barely out of his teens. In short, Jones is MMA's first mainstream athlete in the worst sense of the word.
But that isn't it for me. I've been a huge sports fan for my entire life, growing up in the era of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, LeBron James and a host of others whose athletic gifts seemed so far beyond what we'd seen in their sport as to transform the way the game was played.
I'm also a lifelong boxing fan and spent years worshiping Roy Jones Jr. Like "Bones," Jones ran through the competition until he lost by DQ. Jones was close to stopping Montell Griffin, before Griffin took a knee but the ref's slowness jumping in and Roy's aggressiveness led to him landing two late, illegal blows and being disqualified.
Gifted athletes are something I generally embrace so it's not a matter of that he breaks through expectations with his gifts. With Jones there is just something "off." I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is yet, but there is just a sense of overwhelming phoniness every time I watch him in a situation like this.
Follow after the jump for part 2 of the video.
SBN coverage of UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage
Part 2: