Midnight Mania! DC: Jones Never Proved Innocent From Drug Test Failures

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Daniel Cormier has settled nicely into his role as commentator after being an active fighter and champion for many years, but certain old habits die hard. In this case, it’s beefing with Jon Jones, the primary antagonist of Cormier’s professional career. The two have traded digs for years, but a primary source of trash talk for Cormier has been Jones’ iffy history with drug tests.

To quickly recap: Jones has failed drug tests for cocaine, clomiphene and letrozole (the infamous dick pill situation), and finally turinabol over the years. As a result of all that drama, Cormier recently argued that Jones was unworthy of the greatest of all time (GOAT) debate, which pulled “Bones” back into the argument.

“DC you lost your last fight and then quit the sport,” Jones replied on Twitter. “Talk about being eliminated from the conversation. People will remember I was accused of steroids, they will also remember that I was proven innocent and able to continue with my career.”

Cormier has now answered again, pointing out that USADA never actually named Jones innocent. “You know what I don’t get about this guy? I don’t understand how he goes, ‘They proved me innocent.’ They never proved him innocent,” Cormier said on ESPN’s “DC and Helwani” show (transcription via MMAJunkie). “They never once said he was innocent, so I don’t get it. I don’t get how he can say that publicly and people can repeat it publicly that he was proven innocent.

“No, they said the drugs were found in his system, but through excessive cooperation or something – I can’t remember the word – they took his sentence back. It was never innocent.”

In fact, Jones’ suspension resulting from the Turinabol failure (which overturned his UFC 214 victory over Cormier) was reduced due to “substantial assistance,” which involves handing over information and really has little to do with innocence. Whether or not Jones snitched exactly, don’t expect Cormier to make friends with the soon-to-be Heavyweight.

“It is what it is, I still can’t stand the guy and retired, not retired, see him publicly, I’ll probably still get into it. It’s just the way it is.”

Insomnia

I’d like to see Luke Rockhold make a bit of a comeback. His loss to Jan Blachowicz doesn’t look so bad in retrospect!

Can Alistair Overeem pull off one last run at the crown? I don’t like his odds with Francis Ngannou lurking around, but I wish “The Demolition Man” the best of luck.

This is an amazing fight between powerful, high-volume strikers who love ripping body shots.

I love that ESPN is barely pretending their “Power Rankings” have any meaning behind them besides hype and bias (which dictate the official rankings too!).

Tanner Boser with one of the best reactions to a positive drug test in recent memory:

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

I honestly didn’t realize Frank Mir signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship until I saw this meme, and now I’m just concerned. Please go compete in a gi instead!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

What’s cooler than a two-on-one fight? Obviously a three-on-one fight!

Israel Adesanya’s rise from regional prospect to undisputed champion is absolutely unreal.

SUMO!

Loaded up and landed an absolutely nasty left hook:

Random Land

An intense cloud:

Midnight Music: I really couldn’t find much information on Lynn Williams, the Miami funk singer of the 1970s who performs the track below, but I dig it!

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.