Bleacher Report learned from someone close to the situation that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been juicing ahead of his first title defense, against Quinton Jackson at UFC 135 this Saturday. That person would be Jones himself, and he invited me and my camera to his house to watch.
It turns out this was Jon’s first attempt at making his own juice, aka juicing. He was doing so based on the advice of the Jackson-Winkeljohn team chiropractor, Todd Pickman of Gonstead Family Chiropractic in Albuquerque. The champ attempted to get Pickman on the phone for me, but he was busy tending to Brian Stann, who could be heard in the background saying, “Every injury I have I blame on Jonny Jones.”
We juiced, we drank and it was good. Jones reported feeling the potency of it with his first sip. “I really think this is going to give me the edge against Rampage,” he said.
Jones has been tweeting about juice ever since, and even arranged to have a juicer at his hotel in Denver. So if you happen to see Bert “the UFC’s busiest man” Watson pushing a shopping cart full of vegetables around Whole Foods in Denver, now you know why.
Later, I caught up with Dr. Pickman by phone, who explained the theory behind the champ’s juicing regimen.
“Jon had asked me casually about eating and what I would recommend for him to do that would give him any benefit in terms of energy and endurance. I said if you’re like most people you haven’t eaten enough raw vegetables and he agreed.”
“He eats a high protein high meat diet and doesn’t get enough of the micronutrients you can get from raw veggies. Dark green leafy vegetables have more B vitamins, calcium, folate, iron….
“The mixture I recommended is mostly green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach and chard, plus beets, carrots, ginger and a little apple and lemon for flavor.”
“I’ve been talking to Jon almost daily. He says he has more energy and feels better.”
Jones’ juice may not be anabolic, but at least you can get it in this country and it’s legal in the eyes of every state athletic commission. And in the long run, it’s probably a whole lot better for you than the other stuff.
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