Jon Jones has been in the headlines again after being charged with battery of a cocktail waitress at a gentlemen club, and as is the case whenever Jones makes the news for something negative, it did not take long for the dogpile to form from the MMA community. Another UFC superstar who often finds himself in the headlines for misconduct is “The Notorious” Conor McGregor. One of the legal incidents McGregor was in the headlines for this year was being under investigation for sexual assault.
On the most recent episode of The Hollywood Beatdown, Tyron Woodley refused to cast judgment on Jon Jones until the facts are in and believes there is a stark contrast in how fans react to Jon Jones whenever he finds himself in trouble versus how McGregor is treated:
“We gonna 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…” Woodley said. “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 gonna be too hard on Jon (when) I don’t even know the details.”
Whether Conor McGregor has done “way worse things’ than Jon Jones can be debated, but it is true that both fighters have developed a pattern of finding themselves in hot water, whether it be accusations or confirmed events. Tyron Woodley went on to clarify that his position is not that Jon Jones should be given a pass for his missteps nor that he is assuming Jones is innocent in the battery case, but that McGregor is treated differently when such accusations/events hit the news. Woodley also stressed that he is not defending Jon Jones, but rather addressing hypocrisy and selective outrage:
“I’m not gonna give him a pass, either, because it ain’t my job to give the pass out,” Woodley clarified. “All I’m saying is this: Let’s get all the details first, but let’s not forget there’s a lot of bullshit that go on in our sport that we glorify.”
Does Tyron Woodley have a point? Is there a double standard that exists in the public treatment of Conor McGregor and Jon Jones?
