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Jon Jones again tries to claim that he was innocent all along.
USADA recently announced some major changes to their drug testing policies with the UFC, with one of the biggest changes coming on how they handle results due to tainted supplements.
UFC’s Hunter Campbell explained that a lot of these changes started from Jon Jones’ controversial “pulsing effect,” where trace amounts of the anabolic steroid he was previously suspended for was still showing up on his drug tests.
“Jon Jones was a moment where we all sat down and said, ‘We need to take a look at what the science is, as it pertains to the prohibited list,’” Campbell told ESPN. “And I want to give Jon some credit because he took criticism like no one else has during that case, but everything that occurred in that case turned out to be true and helped result in where the policy is today.”
Jones took to social media after seeing this, using the statement as a way to again claim innocence of any PED use.
“With not one but two biological brothers being Super Bowl champions,” Jones wrote on Instagram. “Could it be possible that maybe I’m just a God gifted artist with a solid work ethic!?”
There’s a few important things to point out here, as Jones has always denied any PED use, and is seemingly doing it again now.
Jones does have good genes, and he obviously works hard. That is true. He most probably never needed to ingest PEDs to be champion too… but the fact is, he did.
The science on this “pulsing” issue hasn’t been properly established, but even if it’s true that he never actually took Turinabol again, this obviously doesn’t mean he has always been clean. The operative word is “again,” as the only reason he didn’t receive an additional suspension from USADA, is because he’s already been punished for it in the past.
Apart from testing positive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol, Jones has also failed other tests and been suspended multiple times before. Ryan Harkness pointed this out as he discussed the light heavyweight champion’s repeated attempts to “gaslight the world.”
Let’s not forget the time Jones got caught red handed the first USADA suspension around with clomiphene and letrozole metabolites in his system. Jones claimed the failed drug test was the result of taking off-brand erectile dysfunction pills.
Everyone had a good laugh at that, but the more interesting news slid mostly under the radar. When USADA looked into Eric Blasich, the teammate Jones admitted to getting the pills from, they discovered something pretty damning: Blasich had also ordered straight up clomiphene along with his order of ‘dick pills.’ He also tried to hide this from USADA by providing a different invoice. So you have fighters buying steroids [Editor’s Note: Clomiphene is a banned PED, but technically isn’t a steroid] along with a ‘tainted supplement’ to blame should one get caught.
There’s plenty of evidence that Jones is a God gifted artist with a solid work ethic. But let’s not ignore the evidence that he’s used steroids in the past. And every time he tries to gaslight the world into thinking it was all just misunderstandings, it’s worth reminding people of said evidence.