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What’s the story?
Last week when a story broke about UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, it seemed like the controversial star’s days with the company may be numbered.
The incident, which involved an alleged assault in a strip club, has been blown out of all proportion according to Jones and his boss Dana White. However, that didn’t stop many fans and commentators hitting out at Jones and his repeated misdemeanors outside the cage.
On his most recent episode of TMZ Sports show, The Hollywood Beatdown, former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has spoken out about how Jones is treated by the MMA world – using Conor McGregor for comparison.
“We going to act like Conor doesn’t do that every week? And we still want to put him on every fight card; he’s the biggest star. The second Jon Jones does something…I’m defending the fact that we selectively throw people under the bus.
"Conor has done way worse things than Jon, and he’s glorified and praised as some Scarface of our sport. So I’m not going to be too hard on Jon (when) I don’t even know the details.”
In case you didn’t know…
Woodley has had run-ins with The Notorious previously; most notably when the pair had a spat backstage at the UFC 205 weigh-ins in 2016.
Woodley is never one to keep his opinions of other fighters to himself, and McGregor is never one to react too kindly to the opinions of others. However, the Irishman is yet to respond to Woodley’s comments.
The heart of the matter
Despite speaking out for Jones on this occasion, Woodley was keen to point out that he won’t say the light-heavyweight champ is completely innocent without knowing all the facts.
“I’m not going to give him a pass, either, because it isn’t my job to give the pass out. All I’m saying is this: Let’s get all the details first, but let’s not forget there’s a lot of bull***t that goes on in our sport that we glorify.”
What’s next?
Last week’s allegations against Jones appear to be losing steam with every passing day, with Dana White explicitly stating ‘Jones is going to be fine’ just last week.
Woodley, meanwhile, is sidelined with a long-term injury, with no date for a return set in stone.
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