If not for the indiscretions that tarnished his image, Jon Jones could have easily been declared as the greatest to ever do it in mixed martial arts today. Instead, he is now facing a possible four-year suspension after testing positive for Turinabol after his UFC 214 title fight against Daniel Cormier.
Jones’ seemingly self-sabotaging behaviors are a bewilderment for many, one of them being UFC analyst Joe Rogan. In a recent episode of his JRE MMA Show podcast, Rogan pointed to brain injury as a possible reason for Jones’ actions.
“There’s a symptom of something else going on,” Rogan said (transcript via MMA Weekly). People don’t like to discuss this but one of the things that it easily could be is that Jon has impulse control [issues] because he’s been sparring and fighting at the highest level of the sport for many, many years now and he’s gotten hit in the head a gang of times. There’s no way around it.”
“There was an article I posted on Twitter that came up a couple of days ago, these neuroscientists were examining brain injury and violent behavior and like how they’re connected,” he continued. “How damage to certain areas of the brain has irreparable consequences on the decision-making ability of the person who gets hit.”
The article Rogan was likely referring to was a study done by neurologist Ryan Darby, which concluded that brain lesions caused by a stroke or trauma could contribute to criminal behavior.
Ultimately, Rogan finds it unfortunate that Jones is one of the sports’ best talents, and its biggest disappointment, at the same time.
“Jon is just one of the most talented guys of all time if not the most talented guy of all time and also the biggest disaster in terms of the biggest mistakes that he’s made,” Rogan said. “We’ve never had a fighter that did a hit-and-run on a pregnant and broke her arm and then took off and then tests positive for drugs cause he’s on d— pills and then tests positive again after his comeback, after a spectacular win over Daniel Cormier.”
“He’s disappointing in that regard,” he added. “So exceptional in his physical abilities but the choices he makes and the decisions that come out of those choices are just f–king terrible.”