Wednesday, March 23, 2011

If Possible, I Like Jon Jones Even More Now

Jon Bones Jones is a UFC champion and a world champion nice guy.

First of all, when I went to meet him and his PR flak he was standing off to the side texting with the championship belt over his shoulder. But because it was raining he had a belt cover. A black cloth cover for the belt. And not just a big black cloth, it was cut perfectly to cover the belt and protect it from the weather.

He was in a bit of a rush and his PR guy was quite chatty so I didn't get to talk to him very much until after his interview. I did tell him that I'm a big fan and had been since I first read about him as Arthur Jones's brother. He seemed impressed that I was a Syracuse grad and nodded in recognition when I told him how many SU people are in the industry.

I've seen a lot of famous people in these circumstances and you can tell a lot about a person watching them interact with strangers for five minutes. Other than his PR guy he had no entourage. There is an direct correlation between number of people in the entourage and how friendly the celebrity is.

It's hard for me to explain in this post, but you know it when you see it. You could just tell he was a good guy by the way he was smiling and really listening to what people were saying to him, even though "you're the greatest" "congratulations champ" and "can I suck your dick?" must get old after a while.


After the interview I explained a little about the control room and how I was talking to the anchor during it. He seemed impressed that someone could talk to him and listen to someone else without getting distracted.

And even though he was in a rush to get on a plane to do Leno tomorrow night, he posed for pictures with about 8 or 10 employees who had waited outside the studio for him. And one annoying person (not me) was chewing his ear off about a seminar Jones is teaching to MMA beginners. Instead of rushing past him, Jones put his arm around the guy and guided him in the direction he was going so they could walk and talk.

god damn this blackberry camera fuckin sucks

Just being around the guy for even just a few minutes you could tell he is very appreciative of everything he has, and very kind and gracious to all his fans.

God bless the Champ. Long may he reign.

3 comments:

Bill said...

For your sake I hope you're right. See Tiger Woods. I think it's a little premature to say he's so perfect.

In the interviews I've seen, he seems very genuine, just like McNabb. I'm sure McNabb has cheated on Roxy many times.

Juice said...

was tiger ever considered to be a good guy? musta missed that..

Paul said...

In biblical times adultery was punishable by death. Now I'm not so sure our society considers it a major personality flaw. Even if I found him to be unfaithful to his future wife I wouldn't say that makes him a bad guy.

And what I'm talking about is different, how you treat people around you. I know it's also important how you treat your wife and kids but I have no access to that.

And Tiger was never considered a gregarious friendly person. He was always awkward and uncomfortable with his fame and attention. And that's why he handled it so poorly.