Jon Jones’ teammate Frank Lester says Jon Jones is just being set up.
Jon Jones failed yet another drug test, this time from his last bout at UFC 214 against Daniel Cormier, and reportedly for an anabolic steroid. With it being his second failure since the USADA policies were put in place, Jones could be facing a suspension up to 4 years.
With this, Jones is risking a decorated hall-of-fame worthy type of career to be tarnished and basically ended, and according to his teammate, this was all a “set up” as that is exactly what people want to happen.
TUF vet Frank Lester took to social media to share his thoughts on his JacksonWink teammate.
“I was just at dinner sitting next to Jon Jones when he got the phone call about this failed drug test,” Lester wrote. “Supposedly the story is between weigh ins and fight night he took a oral steroid. Which makes zero sense since it wouldn’t do anything at all for Jon to do so. It takes weeks for steroids to build up in your system to be a performance enhancer. Jon was devastated to say the least.
“This is a set up, straight up, no athlete would test clean his entire fight camp, and then randomly take some cheap f—king oral steroid betweens weigh ins and fight night knowing he would be tested once he got done fighting. This is a straight set up. They are trying to ruin this kids life. It makes no sense and Jon wouldn’t do it. Let’s see what happens with all of this but I truly believe Jon is innocent & I hope that all of you will give him a fair chance before you send hateful judgements his way.”
The official announcement stated that Jones’ violation stems from a sample he gave right after the weigh in. So for what it’s worth, it doesn’t necessarily mean he took it “between weigh ins and fight night,” just that the substance was still in his system when they tested him on weigh in day.
Lester didn’t specify who he thinks is setting up Jones, but it seems like USADA or UFC or doesn’t have much to gain from this. In fact, the UFC would be taking a huge blow by losing one of their last remaining big draws. They apparently also lost out on a possible lucrative super-fight against heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic because of this too.
Lester is also currently in trouble with the commission, and dealing with a similar career ending type of suspension. The JacksonWink fighter is serving a 5-year ban for several fouls, and unsportsmanlike conduct which included biting his opponent multiple times.