Jon Jones is utterly trolltastic

I am beginning to think that Jon Jones might just be the smartest man in MMA today.  Chael Sonnen is the master of the quick-witted WWE style promos. He knows how to sell a fight, but Jones is operating on a whole different level. He has raised trolling to extravagant, extraordinary, implausible and simply dazzling heights. Jones’ brilliance is beautifully trolltastic.

That is right. He is so good at this he deserves to have a new word created for him. The simple view that some have taken that Jones is afraid of a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson is just one level of this little theatre of the absurd he has set up.

This scenario was aided by Phil Davis, who was so caught up in this drama that he kind of forgot about Anthony Johnson. Davis spent more time taking about Jones leading up to his fight with Johnson than he did his own fight.

Jones, who fought on the same card, and beat up a very tough Glover Teixeira, did not want to talk about Gustafsson afterwards. He refused to answer any questions about him and did not want to talk about him at all.

He did not need to because Davis had done all of the work for him. Jones understands desire and how to build it in the fans. He is also not only willing to play the heel in this scenario, but seems to be having a lot of fun do it. Instead of the simplistic reasons that other people have espoused I think there is something deeper going on here. It is similar to the Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy “The Hit Man” Hearns situation.

They fought for the first time in September of 1981 when they both were established stars and it was obvious that they were going to be two of the all-time greats. They almost fought three years earlier for a lot less money.

In the excellent book Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing by George Kimball, he shows the difference between satisfying the desire quickly versus making the fans wait. The difference was a whole lot of money.

If they had fought in 1978, Leonard would have made $100,000 and Hearns was to get $12,500.When they did finally fight in 1981 the checks were much bigger. Leonard was guaranteed $8,000,000 and Hearns $5,100,000. They each made a few million more off of the $36,000,000 gate.

The mastermind behind that move was Angelo Dundee. He was away when they made the first fight and he stopped it from happening. He understood that there was a risk that the two fighters could lose along the way, but he knew the reward would be worth it.

It seems like Jones understands that as well. The longer the fight fans have to wait on this fight the more they are going to want it. Jones does not care if you are buying the PPV to see him finally get his ass kicked. He is happy you are buying it. Just like Dana White is happy when they buy.

Look, he is playing his part perfectly as well. Instead of conducting behind the scenes negotiating with Jones over this fight like it’s usually done, Dana is airing it all out in the open and has no problem trashing Jones, making him out to be the bad guy. Jones plays that part perfectly mocking his critics with his Instagram videos. He will then delete them. Only after enough people have shared it and the right media sites have it for their articles.

Most fighters do not engage their critics on Twitter or through their Instagram accounts but most fighters are not as smart as Jones. As he trolls along with the trolls that are trolling him he does it so entertainingly well it all becomes trolltastic.

Jones also knows how to be cryptic as well. Check out his following tweet for example: “Lets make the distinction between bad business and bad press.” This was after Dana and Gustafsson had publicly stated that they were just waiting on Jones to sign the contract for the fight, and people had started to react to that news.

Whether you agree with the decision or not, Jones has a point when he says he has already beaten Gustafsson once. He now wants to fight an Olympian and undefeated mixed martial artist in Daniel Cormier, who just literally tossed Dan Henderson around the octagon. A lot of the people want to just attribute that to Cormier being a former heavyweight and Henderson essentially being a middleweight. Henderson has had success fighting heavyweights in the past and holds wins over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor. No one has rag-dolled Henderson in his career until Cormier.

That is  the risk for Jones in this scenario, if he loses to Cormier, then it all falls apart to some degree. At least for Jones, as the UFC could easily pair Gustafsson and Cormier up for the next light heavyweight title fight. If Jones were to fight and lose to Cormier he probably gets the instant rematch as he has been their current longest reigning champion.

Part of the problem for Gustafsson is the role and status of the number one contender in the UFC. The rankings are not, and cannot be taken seriously until they become more consistent and make more sense. Too often fighters jump up and down while inactive. If one fighter is ranked #2 and another #3 and neither of them fight anyone their rankings should not change. All too often they do so; it is difficult to take the whims of the people who vote on this with much seriousness. That being said, the top three ranked fighters at light heavyweight below Jones are right.

Normally it is decided by Dana who can and does change his mind as well. The way it usually works is the UFC puts together the fight, everybody signs on, and they fight. Jones is not your usual UFC champion. He understands his power and he uses it. While not everybody wants to agree with him you have to respect his right to want more say and control in the path of his career. Jones seems to understand that he only has this much juice while he is the champ and winning.

If Jones and Gustafsson fight either as the main event of the New Year’s Eve card or the start of next year on the Super Bowl weekend card it will be even bigger than if it happens now. Another win or two for each of them before the rematch only makes it an even bigger fight.

However this all plays out you can expect more outrage and confusion from Dana. He will seem completely frustrated and exasperated by Jones. Then he will come around and point out how much of a fucking stud Jones is for wanting to fight a BMF like Cormier.

You can also expect Gustafsson to get more pissed off about having to wait and he will take it out on his next opponent. Also, his teammate Phil Davis will start in again with his ‘Jones is afraid of Gustafsson’ bit.

There will also be some more cryptic messages on Twitter from Jones to go with the outrageous ones and his mocking Instagram videos. All of which help make him so trolltastic.