The Beatdown: Relax, Jon Jones will indeed sign your replica belt

To date, Jon “Bones” Jones has done just about everything right. He’s been close to flawless in the Octagon, is confident but still generally respectful and humble, and even chased down a thief hours before winning the UFC light heavyweight championship belt earlier this year so your grandma will like him. Oh, and his tattoo isn’t a flaming skull but a Bible verse.

Well, he finally slipped up. If you were looking for a reason to hate Jon Jones, you got one. In a recent interview with Josh Zerkle of With Leather, Jones explained what he would change about the sport.

“I would get rid of the replica belt. I hate it when people come up to me with a belt that looks exactly like mine and they ask me to sign it. I worked three times a day for three years to get this belt, and now this guy asking me for an autograph has one just like it. Are you serious? I mean it’s not as heavy, but it looks just the same. I never sign those belts.”

Hey, look Mr. Bones, it’s not our fault you took the sucker’s route to the championship belt. I worked just as hard earning mine through my allowance. You think I don’t deserve it? Then step into the cage and take it from me.

Athletes can’t sign every autograph asked of them, but they can’t get caught not giving one or fans will jump all over them. Strange that he would make an actual policy of it though. And that’s why it didn’t add up when I saw the first few stories criticizing his statement. I don’t know him, but again, the dude seems too nice for that.

Once you get to the original source, it makes more sense. Jones was interviewed while filming a comedic K-Swiss commercial and that humor probably carried over. If you read on, he also says, “I’ll sign anything they’ll ask me. Gloves. Shirts. Boobs.” He even agrees to sign the interviewer’s boobs. “Sure, man. You got some nice ones, too.” Probably not a good idea to take everything he said too literally.

As a follower of Jones’ twitter page, I’ve seen nothing but uplifting, motivational, inspirational posts from him – the Tony Robbins of MMA. A couple followers have already pointed out that he signed their replica belts, and @SportsBoy23 even provided photographic evidence. Jones states there that he’s signed every belt ever handed to him. The research didn’t take too long, but it also didn’t take too long for people to get carried away on internet forums and rip him apart as another all-about-me diva athlete. That’s not the case.

This is a guy who has Philippians 4:13 tattooed on his chest, which, if memory serves, reads: “Seriously, I’m a pretty decent guy.” Or was it, “Jesus refuseth to sign the Philippians’ replica sandals”?

***
Previously in The Beatdown …

***
Tim Gilmour is a sports reporter and author of the humor blog LetMeThinkForYou.com. His column appears each Monday.