What did Jon Jones have to gain by responding to Miesha Tate?
Following Jon Jones’ CSAC hearing, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate gave an interview with Sirius XM.
Jones had his MMA licence revoked and was fined $205,000 for testing positive for the steroid Turinabol in an in-competition drug test for his UFC 214 headliner against Daniel Cormier. He cannot apply for another licence until the conclusion of his USADA suspension, which has yet to be set.
After this latest development, Tate admitted that she had lost interest in ‘Bones’ Jones’ case.
“The thing is, I don’t really care at this point if he comes back because I’ve lost the motivation and the interest, and the faith that I have in Jon Jones has been lost. Now maybe in three, four years, if he gets a great suspension, if he gets the book thrown at him and he really does make those changes, maybe he has a chance at restoring, but at this point, I just don’t care anymore. I don’t care. I’m over Jon Jones. I’m done with it.”
""I don't really care at this point if he comes back"@MieshaTate explains to @RJcliffordMMA why she has no desire to see Jon Jones return to MMA anytime soon. pic.twitter.com/gCyq3N0mbB
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) February 28, 2018
Hitting ‘send’
Jones didn’t take too kindly to ‘Cupcake’s comments. Her comments prompted an ill-advised response from him on Twitter in which he appeared to take a swipe at her character.
Tate retired from the sport off the back of consecutive losses to Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington. Jones stating that he isn’t a quitter coupled with the suggestion that Tate might “find motivation” in how he deals with his struggles seemed to be a direct shot at Tate.
He closed off with ‘Enjoy retirement sister.’
@MieshaTate I don’t quit when things get tough for me, I get stronger. You just wait and see, maybe you’ll even find motivation in it. Sucks I lost you as a fan. Enjoy retirement sister
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 1, 2018
Unsurprisingly, Tate took offence to the response. Like many others, she perceived it to be a dig at her decision to walk away from MMA.
She added that she wasn’t optimistic about Jones; ability to conquer his demons and sort his life out.
@jonnybones u make things tougher 4 urself, I hope u can figure it out this time but I’m not holding my breath. Supported u plenty in the past & if ur implying I’m a quitter that’s pretty low. There’s a time when all of us have to stop & Happy I walked away with a clean slate https://t.co/uOuhVzPAG4
— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) March 2, 2018
Jones has since responded conceding the discussion to Tate. He confessed that responding to her comments in the first place was a mistake.
@MieshaTate Never meet negativity with negativity, I shouldn’t have responded to you in the first place. You won
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 2, 2018
Hopefully, this odd beef has ended before it has the chance to get any uglier.
It was not a good look for Jones, in particular.
