‘Big’ John McCarthy Breaks Down Why Jon Jones Isn’t a Mount Rushmore MMA Fighter

Former UFC referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy doesn’t think Jon Jones belongs on the Mount Rushmore of MMA.

When discussing the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, names like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Royce Gracie, and Jon Jones inevitably pop up. The reasons for adding a specific fighter to one’s ‘Mount Rushmore’ list can and usually do vary, but it seems like when someone wants to exclude the reigning undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, there’s usually one universal thought behind his exclusion.

“I look at it different. If you want to say best fighters for Mount Rushmore, the best fighters there ever was, well Jon Jones is on it,” McCarthy said during a recent episode of his Weighin In podcast with Josh Thomson. “If you’re going to say give me an MMA Mount Rushmore, the criteria for it is different than just best fighter and there’s things that, you know, have been done in the past that I go no, I can’t put you on that. Let’s just be honest” (h/t MMA News).

Does Jon Jones’ history of arrests and PED violations Disqualify him From GOAT Talks?

Obviously, McCarthy is referring to Jon Jones’ laundry list of trouble outside of the Octagon. On three separate occasions between 2015 and 2017, ‘Bones’ was flagged for a variety of banned substances, the first being benzoylecgonine, the primary metabolite of cocaine.

The following year, a urine sample ahead of his scheduled clash with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200 tested positive for two banned substances, clomiphene, an anti-estrogen substance, and letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor. Jones was forced to withdraw from the fight and was slapped with a one-year suspension.

Their fight was eventually rescheduled for UFC 214, but this time around, Jones tested positive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. Jones was stripped of the light heavyweight title for the third time in his career and was suspended for 15 months.

And then you’ve got his multiple arrests for hit-and-run, domestic violence, DWI, battery, assault, and interference with communications.

“I take a look at outside of the sport, Jon hasn’t been the greatest ambassador for the sport,” McCarthy added. “He’s had more controversy than I can give him.”