Jon Jones was only drug tested four times in 2022.
That didn’t sit well with longtime rival Daniel Cormier, who doesn’t understand why USADA, tasked with keeping UFC athletes clean both in and out of competition, isn’t monitoring “Bones” with the same vigor as some of the promotion’s other top names, like former 205-pound titleholder Jiri Prochazka.
“Denisa” was tested a whopping 24 times in one month.
“One of the reasons with Jon Jones was that he was gonna get to come back, but he was gonna be the most tested guy in USADA,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel (transcribed by Farah Hannoun). “They were gonna be on him. They were gonna make sure that he didn’t have picograms or any of that stuff. Where are his damn tests? I mean, why is he not the most tested? Why are you testing Jiri Prochazka more than you’re testing this guy who has a history of having these types of issues? That makes no sense.”
And 2022 is not the only year this happened.
Jones, 35, has not competed since late 2020 but spent the last few months preparing for his Octagon comeback, which nearly came to pass at the UFC 282 pay-per-view (PPV) event earlier this month in Las Vegas. So with Jones actively negotiating for a 2022 return, along with a history of performance-enhancing drug (PED) abuse, it’s not unreasonable to wonder why USADA wasn’t making a more concerted effort to keep Jones honest.
“We have a guy who has a history of drug abuse that got tested a third of the months of the year,” Cormier continued. “That’s not fair. That’s not random. USADA should look at it with Jones based on the history of performance-enhancing abuse, already issues that he’s had. To me that just doesn’t make any sense that he’s been tested so little.”
Jones is tentatively scheduled to make his UFC return in March.