A fighter of Jon Jones calibre should be in the ranks of one of the more popular names in the mixed martial arts' world such as Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva or Rhonda Rousey, yet he is usually an afterthought and pictured as a villain. Usually entering to a rain of boos, Jones has seemingly embraced the role of the baddie and UFC commentator Joe Rogan has a theory on that.

During his podcast, Rogen theorized that much of the criticism Jones receives is due to racism.

"I don't understand it. In my opinion, I will never miss a Jon Jones (expletive) pay-per-view. I've heard people say, 'Oh, he's cocky. He's this and (that).' I wonder what the (expletive) is going on with that and I'm going to throw this out there, I'm just going to say it: I wonder how much of it is racism. I really do," Rogen quipped during his popular show.

The sentiment is understandable given that Jones has an impressive resume of accomplishments. The UFC light heavyweight champion has already disposed of big names such as Shogun Rua, Alexander Gustafsson, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort , Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida on his way to the apex of the 205-division. He also holds the distinction of having the longest winning streak in his division's history, yet all these are being set aside and the focus on his arrogance and villainy.

The 25-year-old champion has a reputation of being cocky and not all of which has not merits. He disposed of several fan favourites as of late including Machida, Rua and Quinton Jackson. Unjustly, he was also blamed for refusing to face Sonnen at UFC 151 in lieu of the injured Dan Henderson resulting to the first UFC pay-per-view cancelled event. And there's the DUI incident when he totalled his Bentley at upstate New York which all the more distanced him from fans.

Just recently, he was again at the front page of MMA headlines when he figured in shoving match in a press conference fight with Daniel Cormier at Las Vegas. Words were exchanged as Cormier labelled his aura as fake humility persona and trashed the longest-reigning title holder.

Whether there is credence to the theory of Rogen remains to be seen as there are several other villainous fighters such as Sonnen who embraced that persona and built a following of their own. With the number of cocky fighters out there of different nationalities, it would be difficult to connect racism as the major card affecting perception of the controversial Jones.

Listen to the podcast of Rogen defending Jon Jones against undue "racism:"

(Video Courtesy of: Youtube/PowerfulJRE)