UFC 182 fight week has not been all that kind to Jon Jones.
Instead of being able to focus solely on Daniel Cormier, the UFC light heavyweight champion has been dealing with critics calling him fake, UFC president Dana White telling him to embrace the bad guy role, and now backtracking on comments he made regarding his lost Nike deal.
From his UFC 182 media scrum:
"They're like, 'technically you lied under oath,' and I didn't. I had several months left on my Nike contract. When that fight happened it sped up the process of my losing my Nike deal. I had like thousands of dollars of credit left on my Nike account that I never got to spend. I had several months of monthly revenue money that I never got to receive ... So I lost several thousand dollars because of that fight, so technically that fight was the reason for thousands of dollars being out of my bank that I could have received. So technically, they have nothing to come back on me for."
Following the infamous UFC 178 media day scuffle, Jones was fined $50,000 and sentenced to 40 hours of community service by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
During the champ's hearing, "Bones" noted his lucrative deal with Nike was dropped as a result of the brawl. However, just a few days ago Jones was quoted saying he "worded it wrong" at the hearing and his Nike deal was already facing impending doom prior to the brawl due to the fact that Nike was uninterested in moving forward with mixed martial arts (MMA).
Of course, in hindsight it seems that Jones "worded it wrong" in order to strike empathy in the NSAC in hopes of getting leniency in his punishment.
The champ himself does not seem worried about a potential perjury charge, but only time will tell whether or not NSAC re-opens the case.
As for now, Jones is happily under contract with Reebok, who definitely is moving forward in the sport of MMA as the company reached a momentous deal with UFC in late 2014.
Let's see if it pays off this Saturday night right here.
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