Opinion: What Are We Going To Do About Jon Jones?

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to take a step back and analyze just how much damage one man did to the International Fight Week centerpiece.

When he’s locked inside a cage, Jon Jones is breathtakingly amazing to watch. Most everyone recognizes that he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world once the cage door slams, but once it opens back up again, Jones has been nothing short of detrimental to his own career; and now he’s impairing others, as well.

We’ve heard about how he lost out on a supposed eight-figure payday as a UFC 200 headliner when the United States Anti-Doping Agency yanked him over a pair of banned substances in his system. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t cry for an overly privileged man who got nailed -- again -- for being an idiot. The man to whom Jones did the most damage was Daniel Cormier, who is now stuck in this awkward limbo where he’ll never be able to prove that he’s the best fighter in the world. If he had lost to Jones, at the very least, he would know where he stands. Now Cormier may never know, especially when we consider he’ll be closing in on 40 when Jones returns from what is rumored to be a two-year suspension.

It’s almost like Cormier has become Joe Frazier to Jones’ Muhammad Ali -- well, as long as you separate the fact that Ali stood up for something in which he believed and was exiled from boxing while Jones just fails drug tests. Still, the parallel of Frazier not being recognized as the true champion until he defeated Ali rings true here. It didn’t matter what Frazier did because the fans only recognized Ali, right up until they finally clashed and Frazier had his arm raised. Unfortunately, Cormier won’t have that luxury anytime soon, if ever.

Beyond Cormier, it’s important to note how much harm Jones did to the biggest Ultimate Fighting Championship event of the year. It makes the decision to pull Conor McGregor over a missed press conference look downright absurd. I’m sure UFC President Dana White would take a missed press conference over the turmoil Jones caused by being forced out three days before the fight. The result left UFC 200 as a decent but far less memorable event. It’s just about as unforgivable as having an entire card cancelled. Oh, wait, Jones was responsible for that, too, when UFC 151 was axed after he refused to face Chael Sonnen on short notice.

The snowball effect potentially shelled a card that seemed too good to be true. If nothing else, the end of one of the most vitriolic rivalries in MMA would have culminated in the cage. Instead, Cormier and Silva engaged in a less-than-spectacular fight, and some people left the arena before Amanda Nunes punished Miesha Tate to claim the women’s bantamweight championship in the replacement headliner. It was an unfortunate conclusion to an event that was stacked to the gills with talent.

If you’re the UFC’s new owners, what do you do about Jones? Clearly, he’s not where he needs to be and may never get his act together. You simply cannot put the future of your promotion in his hands ever again. Sure, he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, but the risk and reward simply don’t match up. He’s never been a huge draw -- granted, people love controversy, so his stock may apprehensively rise -- and just isn’t reliable.

This isn’t a Brock Lesnar situation in which a part-time star gets busted. This is the best fighter in the sport, a man who is supposed to be carrying your flag. If you’re in charge of the UFC, can you really deal with that kind of risk? If the answer is no, what does that mean? Do you hand Jones his walking papers? It’s an excruciating dilemma the UFC’s new owners are going to have to address. If Jones is hit with the two-year suspension, he’s still young enough to return in his prime years. There’s really no worry about his skills deteriorating, but that’s not the problem.

If being stripped of the title and getting suspended for a year wasn’t enough to scare him straight, what will this do? It’s a sad story about how the best fighter in the world couldn’t get out of his own way. Sounds like something that’s built for ESPN “30 for 30” consideration.

For his sake, I hope Jones figures it out. He’s a special talent inside of the cage regardless of what we think about him outside of it. If he can manage to get his life in order, he’ll still be a valuable asset and have a redemption story worth chronicling. However, that’s a big “if,” and he’s simply not to be trusted.

Andreas Hale is the editorial content director of 2DopeBoyz.com, co-host of the boxing, MMA and pro wrestling podcast “The Corner” and a regular columnist for Sherdog.com. You can follow on Twitter for his random yet educated thoughts on combat sports, music, film and popular culture.