It was announced via Dana White’s twitter account that Jon Jones will be a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It will mark the first time that a UFC star will appear on the show.
Although Rampage Jackson and Jacob Volkmann (H/t Mike Chiapetta) may have appeared on the show in the past, Jackson promoted The A-Team and Volkmann was mocked for his Obama comments. Jones will be the first to appear due to winning a UFC Championship. And perhaps he’ll talk about his crime fighting skills.
Payout Perspective:
If you didn’t think Jones could be a mainstream star, think again. This will be great PR for the UFC. Jones should do well and give viewers another perspective on people that fight in a cage. I assume he’ll be the third guest out so he won’t have too much time to impress. Here’s an interesting tidbit: Both Jones and Leno have main evented PPVs. In 1998, Leno tag-teamed with Diamond Dalas Page against Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff in a WCW PPV.
Should we look into the fact that Jones is going to fly across country to appear on NBC rather than make the short trip to New York City to appear on Letterman and CBS as a sign of a potential future partnership between NBC and the UFC. Possibly. Regardless, the appearance is a big step for the UFC to go mainstream.
TMZ just did a fantastic super hero spoof about Jone’s “crime fighting”.