Jon Jones is perhaps the most polarizing and heavily scrutinized athlete in the history of the UFC. And that reputation did not subside in the slightest this past week after it was revealed that a recent Jones drug test rendered an atypical result that would ultimately cause UFC 232 to change states and venues, moving from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada to The Forum in Los Angeles, California. Holly Holm has trained with Jon Jones at Jackson Wink MMA for years and she has seen a side of him that many fans have seen up close and personal, but what most of Jones detractors may be unaware of:
“I think everybody grows up in time,” Holm said on MMA on SiriusXM about regarding Jon Jones’s maturity. “I mean, you learn as you live life. And so everybody grows up. I’ll tell you one thing about Jon that he’s always been very mature about and very good about. He’s never been too good for anybody else, never puts himself above anybody else.
“And you see him outside of the gym, anybody that comes up to him, he’s very real with people and genuinely wants to be. People come up and say hi. ‘Oh, hi, nice to meet you, and walk away. He always has that mini-conversation with them. Because he actually cares to meet these people and he appreciates them. That’s something he’s always had.”
Holly Holm has a theory on why Jon Jones receives as much criticism as he does, and it goes beyond the mistakes he’s made outside of the cage but is rather because of his flawlessness inside of it:
“Yes, the drama for the fight and things like that, but there’s a lot of fighters that do that. I think Jon’s the one that gets the most scrutiny from people. But maybe it’s because he’s just that good, so he’s an easy target.”
Do you agree with Holly Holm? Is Jon Jones an easy target because of how talented and successful he is?
