Jon Jones confirms infamous story of hiding from drug testers

Photo by Christian Petersen/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

Remember the story about Jon Jones hiding under a cage?

One of the most infamous and unconfirmed stories about Jon Jones’ colorful career has been about the time he supposedly hid under a cage to hide from drug testers.

Back in 2015, around the time Jones failed a random drug test, Deadspin had a report that mentions Jones may have hid “under the cage when a tester showed up at his gym unannounced.” Always the storyteller, Chael Sonnen also fanned the flames of this rumor, telling a much more detailed account of what allegedly happened.

“USADA rolls in to Jackson’s gym to do a test on Jon Jones and there were only some coaches in there and Jon, there were like five people in there at the time. Where they parked, he can see them coming, so they know what to do with him. They hide him underneath the cage. Jon Jones hides under the cage. They say, ‘Jon, we don’t know where he is,’ and this is before we were enrolled in the program and he did not need to disclose his whereabouts. At the same time, if they show up and find you, you must test. If they can’t find you, you didn’t have to test back then. They wanted to get a warrant to go under that ring, under the theory that at some point in that 6-8 hour span, he would have had to pee. They wanted to go under forensically and collect that urine. That’s how upset they were that they had been had.”

Jones’ coaches have always denied this rumor for years, saying it’s just Sonnen trying to get attention. Interestingly enough though, the former light heavyweight champion somewhat confirmed this now infamous story from half a decade ago.

As part of their never ending twitter beef, Israel Adesanya brought up the story about hiding under the cage, then Jones just casually confirmed that he did indeed hide from drug testers.

Seemingly implying that the rest of the story is true, Jones pointed out that the main difference is that he hid from the NSAC, and that it was only because of marijuana, not performance enhancing drugs.

“I was hiding from Nevada State Athletic Commission, not USADA and that was years ago,” Jones wrote. “I had just smoked a blunt and was afraid I would fail my test for weed. That’s the actual truth. Now everyone knows.”

From testing positive for turinabol, clomiphene, letrozole and even cocaine, to the entire “pulsing” and “picogram” saga after, Jones has been involved with several drug test scandals throughout the years, leading to being suspended and stripped of his title multiple times.

It’s unclear what Jones has to gain from admitting to hiding from testers now, as it’s an issue that got fighters like Wanderlei Silva in serious trouble, with very long suspensions. But hey, at least we now have a confirmation on one of the most infamous — and hilarious — drug testing stories in MMA!