Jon Goddamned Jones

PEDs. Again. Yeah.

What the fuck do you say about this guy now? Conor McGregor acts like the supreme asshole of the sport, but Jon Jones holds the actual title. There's no dick pill excuse on this one. If he did get another tainted dick pill, his suspension should be even longer on account of sheer idiocy.

Everything about this feels bad. I can't even be happy for Daniel Cormier having the title come back to him, because no matter the level of cheat, we saw him get busted up twice by Jones and, at his best, keep the fights even. I want to believe, deep in my soul, that an un-juiced Jones gets hammer fisted into next month by Cormier, but that only feels like it would be true if Jones had been juicing his entire career, even when he wasn't making the money to afford these suspensions (or maybe even the drugs).

Cormier deserves to hold the title, assuming this isn't some sort of borked test. He's the best light heavyweight in the world, by some margin, out of everyone who follows the rules. But it's also possible to recognize someone as a deserving champ while having it not quite seem like he's cleared every hurdle. It's not as though this is a singular problem for him, mind you; with regards to public perception, this idea is applied to other people as well. There's a difference between someone viewed as merely holding a belt (Michael Bisping), someone who might have deserving challengers but none who people think are on his or her level (Max Holloway), and someone who has completely cleared out a division (Demetrious Johnson).

But the whole point of the second Jones fight was for Cormier to prove, if he won, that he was truly the best and could beat all comers. Even knowing intellectually he was fighting a version of Jones that was not allowed in the Octagon, the sense is still there that Jones remains an uncleared hurdle. Justice in this sport would be never seeing Jones fight for a UFC title again. Even if he does, it wouldn't happen until Cormier is likely retired. Thus Cormier, unlike anyone else, will continue on without ever having a chance to implant himself as a champion in people's minds in the visceral way they need to see to really, truly believe it.

And that just fucking sucks.