With the news that Mike Winkeljohn has temporarily barred Jon Jones from training at Jackson Wink MMA in Albuquerque, it’s yet more proof you can only get away with so many promises that this behavior just isn’t you before you face real, temporary consequences. As they say in MMA, “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 11 times and I’m starting to worry about where all this shame actually belongs.” Jones’ arrest for the minor crime of domestic abuse and the serious offence of being mean to police property was the last straw, as Winkeljohn felt that Jones simply was no longer living up to the high behavioral standards in place at the gym which once flew a QAnon flag on its roof.
“Sure, when you list off all of Jon’s problems individually they don’t sound so bad,” Winkeljohn said. “Driving under the influence; popping for steroids then blaming it on dick pills; physically assaulting a waitress; getting in a hit-and-run with a pregnant woman; sending a series of abusive and threatening messages to members of the press; participating in vigilante justice against the imagined threat of social justice protests; having your kids call the cops on you because you’re abusing their mother who is too terrified by what you’ll do to give an honest statement to the police. I mean, who among us, am I right? But when you add them all up, they suddenly start to seem like bad things that there should be consequences for.”
Fortunately, the horrors of cancel culture haven’t fully taken back the sport yet, as the IBJJF was recently happy to prove. Showing bravery to not cater to the quivering masses who say that covering for multiple rapists within your gyms, some of whom preyed on literal children, means you’re not somebody worthy of lauding and presenting uncritical praise of, they were proud to share an image of BJJ competitor Cyborg Abreu showing off the number of predators he’s offered protection to within his Fight Sports gyms following his recent strong performance at an IBJJF event.