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For a fighter under the microscope for repeated drug issues, Jon Jones isn’t too worried about hiding the fact he still uses drugs. Jones is set to return from his latest drug-related suspension at December’s UFC 232. That’s why it may be a surprise – or not one at all – to hear that Jones admits he still smokes marijuana and drinks.

Such was the case on this week’s edition of “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” (via MMA Mania). “Bones” is nearing his return from a 15-month suspension for a positive test for anabolic steroid Turinabol during his UFC 214 win over Daniel Cormier in July 2017. He reportedly checked into voluntary rehabilitation to combat his addictions. Jones even met with a counselor three times a week.

But that hasn’t made him a choir boy, of course. Asked by Helwani if he was sober, he admitted he was not. Jones told Helwani that he still drinks alcohol on the weekends, and even smokes weed time and again as well:

“No, I still drink and smoke pot, too, every once in a while. I’m in a very healthy place. I mean, who knows. My coaches know I drink. Not like a crazy, crazy amount. Some weekends, mainly on the weekends.”

Not Completely Sober

“Bones” continued that he was striving for complete sobriety when he entered rehabiltation this summer but ultimately found it was not for him. He said he did learn a lot from the experience regardless:

“It was something I was striving for, especially going to rehab this summer. I was striving for complete sobriety. But, I am not ready for it. It is not who I was and it’s not who I am in my life or career. And I am at a place where I can be honest with myself. But, being in there definitely matured me a lot.”

Almost Left The UFC?

Due to his previous issues with USADA and other drug-related troubles, Jones was facing a potential four-year ban this year. He told Helwani he would have possibly left the UFC to fight outside the United States if that happened:

“I was facing a four-year suspension and that was devastating. I had to really re-evaluate a lot of things such as, what I think of the sport or fighting overseas. Who am I outside of the sport? It was a major learning experience for me to go through something like what I just got out of.

“I would’ve moved on, I would’ve probably talked to UFC about getting out of my contract and fighting overseas. I feel like a lot of organizations would be happy to have me, I think they would paid me pretty well. Definitely not the money I get paid in UFC, but I felt like whee I would move I would be on of their top priorities and treated well.”

“Bones” did assert that he would quit smoking pot and drinking in the weeks before his anticipated rematch with Gustafsson. We’ve heard that before, however, only to see Jones pulled out of another high-profile fight due to drug usage.

It’s outright amazing he’s even booked for an umpteenth comeback attempt, but that’s what happens when you’re one of MMA greatest ever. If he can reassume that spot remains to be seen, but Jones may or may not be running out of chances. Either way, he’s certain to be on USADA’s radar even more based on this interview.

The post Jon Jones Admits He Still Smokes Weed & Drinks Alcohol appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

The reactions to last weekend’s (Saturday, November 24, 2018) Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell from The Forum in Inglewood, California, have been brutal, to say the least. With that established, it’s no surprise Dana White sounds off on the farcical ‘fight.’

Ortiz knocked the 48-year-old Liddell out in the first round of the Oscar De La Hoya-promoted event, “avenging” his previous two losses to the “The Iceman.” But the fight drew almost sport-wide criticism based on the suggestion that Liddell shouldn’t even been licensed to fight. His longtime coach John Hackleman said it made him feel ‘sick to his stomach.‘ Chael Sonnen offered his own reaction as he always does.

California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) executive director Andy Foster defended his decision to license Liddell. The legendary former UFC champion had been retired for eight years. Ortiz took to social media to defend his decision to fight ‘The Iceman.’

White Goes Off

But one prominent MMA figure’s response was missing – that of UFC President Dana White. That is, until today, when White finally went off on the controversial bout on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (transcribed by MMA Fighting). White went off on supposed ‘cokehead’ De La Hoya by focusing on his friendship with Liddell and how he should have stayed retired.

He also didn’t let the CSAC off the hook:

“I love Chuck Liddell and I don’t ever want to bad mouth Chuck Liddell,” White said. “People even think I’m remotely bad mouthing Chuck Liddell, but the reality is — first of all, I heard last week the cokehead ‘Oscar De La Weirdo’ is talking shit that I don’t have any place to tell guys when to retire. First of all, it’s called ‘friendship’ you f*cking cokehead.

“I’ve been friends with Chuck Liddell for 20 years and the reality is that Chuck Liddell retired when he should have retired. Eight, nine years ago, however long it was. And Chuck Liddell’s almost 50 years old and has no business fighting anymore. The fact that the state of California even let that fight happen is disgusting. Disgusting.”

White then offered his respect for Liddell’s body of work, adding that anyone who let him fight Ortiz again was not a true friend:

“Chuck Liddell has an incredible legacy. He’s a huge superstar in this sport, so of course as a friend, anybody who claims to be a friend of Chuck Liddell and was anywhere near this fight is full of shit. They’re not a friend of Chuck Liddell. To let him go in and fight this fight is terrible.”

Lies About Pay?

White acknowledged Liddell’s will but noted the fight game catches up to everyone at some point.

Then the gloves really came off, as White eviscerated De La Hoya’s claims that fighters would get paid better by Golden Boy MMA than they would by the UFC. White pointed out the paltry sums they actually made at their first event:

“The problem is Chuck Liddell was a fighter,” White said. “Chuck Liddell loves to fight, that’s his passion, it’s what he loves in life. But there comes a day and age, fighting is a young man’s game. You can’t do it.

“And Oscar f*king De La Hoya says, ‘Oh, come over to Golden Boy where we respect the fighters and it makes me sick what these fighters were paid’ and all this shit. Out of 14 fights on the card, five bouts were amateur fights. Which means he didn’t pay them jack shit, right? And 12 of the professional fighters on the card made less than [$3,000 show and $3,000 to win]. What the f*ck are you talking about you cokehead junkie?

“Some of the guys on the card made $1,000 and $1,000. And he respects the fighters so much, he couldn’t remember their f*king names at the press conference.”

Ortiz & Oscar

The outspoken UFC front man then went in on Ortiz, suggesting he and the coke-fueled ‘De La Dummy’ were made for each other. Like De La Hoya, Ortiz suggested fighters would be “getting paid” by Golden Boy MMA, but White thinks they’ll instead be suing to recoup their purses soon. Overall, he was dumbfounded that Liddell allowed himself to become involved:

“Tito and ‘Oscar De La Dummy’ were made for each other,” White said. “First of all, Tito says, ‘Hey, you guys want to get paid. Come over to Golden Boy MMA.’ Are you kidding me? Wait a couple of months until this whole thing pans out.

“Everybody’s going to be suing everybody in a couple of months. There was no money made over there. De La Hoya’s a moron. An absolute moron. And I don’t know how Chuck allowed himself to be talked into this stupid shit.”

White closed with a brutal callout of his enemy De La Hoya. He said he hoped he would return to fighting and get knocked out himself:

“I hope somebody talks De La Hoya into fighting again,” White said. “I hope the state of California makes the fight and I hope he gets f*cking knocked out just like Chuck Liddell did in the first round. F*cking cokehead nutball.”

The post Dana White Destroys ‘Cokehead’ De La Hoya For Ortiz vs. Liddell III appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC and TUF veteran Cody McKenzie was dealt a devastating four-year suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) earlier this week.

The suspension stemmed from a pre-fight drug test at a September 14 Tuff-N-Uff event in Las Vegas. There, McKenzie allegedly supplied the commission with fake urine. His fight was canceled. McKenzie was then scheduled to appear before the NSAC on October 24, but he claimed his hearing was pushed back so the commission could extend the temporary suspensions for Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor’s post-fight brawl at UFC 229.

His hearing was rescheduled for November 14. When he didn’t show up, the commission “found the respondent in default” and gave him the daunting four-year suspension. But McKenzie has a completely different side of the story. He recently told MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee that the NSAC acted incredibly strange throughout the entire ordeal. That includes asking him to take a urine test during his warm-up for the fight:

“They said if I didn’t piss in a cup right before my fight — literally I was warming up — my fight was about to happen in five minutes and they’re yelling at me, telling me I need to take the piss test and I’m like, ‘No, I can’t take a piss right now. I’m warming up for my fight. I’ve never f*ckin’ taken a piss in my life before a fight. I’ve fought for 15 years. Leave me alone.

“We start fighting back and forth, they started saying we’re not going to let you fight unless you f*ckin’ piss in the cup. So I f*ckin’ just went in the bathroom and poured something in the cup and it was funny because I was telling them I wasn’t going to let them watch me pee.”

Sexually Harrassed?

But that’s when things got a lot stranger. McKenzie claims a commission official pulled his penis out and brandished it at him. He also claimed that five or six witnesses saw it and did nothing. The NSAC also did nothing when he contacted them repeatedly with the concern:

“And one of the [commission inspectors] whipped out his f*ckin’ dick, ‘cause he’s like, ‘Oh, it’s not that f*ckin’ hard.’ And he takes his dick out and shakes his dick at me. I was like, ‘Dude, that’s f*ckin’ sexual harassment.’ You can’t do that. That’s bullshit, you know? There was five or six witnesses standing right there. Nothing ever came out about it.

“I talked to the commission about it countless times, they just keep saying there’s an investigation going on, which I haven’t heard a thing about it, they won’t talk to me about any of it. I’m like, ‘You guys are ridiculous. You guys are f*ckin’ crazy.’ That’s nuts to me. You don’t pull your dick out and shake it at somebody, especially in this day and age.”

McKenzie went into further detail about this alleged circumstance, claiming that he filed a complaint but they still employed the man who pulled out his genitals:

“Backstage, there was probably six of us standing around and this older guy got all pissed at me because I said I wasn’t going to piss right in front of people because I never have had to before and he got all mad at me and he whipped out his dick and shook it at me,” McKenzie said. “And not for a short amount of time. He was yelling at me while he’s shaking his dick at me.

“They haven’t fired the guy that I’ve heard of, I haven’t heard of any repercussions coming their way. It’s just a bunch of bullshit. The Nevada State Athletic Commission’s just a joke.”

NSAC Responds

NSAC executive director Bob Bennett replied to the allegations. He called them untrue, but did confirm the official in question was no longer working events for the NSAC:

“[McKenzie’s] allegations are not accurate,” Bennett said. “We’re currently looking into the matter accordingly. At the current time, that inspector is no longer working events for us.”

Overall, McKenzie admitted that he did pour something that was not his own urine into the testing specimen collection cup. That’s going to get him in hot water regardless of the other unforeseen nefarious details. However, he claimed the NSAC told him if he showed them the fake urine, they wouldn’t release the news to the media. They did, and that’s part of what has McKenzie up in arms.

With that established, he said they don’t actually look out for fighters’ safety:

“I’m just mad at the commission,” McKenzie said. “We’ve been going back-and-forth for a while. They promised me that if I showed them the fake pee that they wouldn’t tell the media. That it wouldn’t get out, that it would just be between us. They lied to me there, they told me I’d be able to fight if I pulled it out. They lied to me up and down. It was just a bunch of BS that was going on there.

“The commission is out of control. They’re terrible. They say they’re here for our safety, but they’ve let me get ripped off my entire career.”

The post Cody McKenzie Says NSAC Official ‘Whipped His D**k Out’ At Drug Test appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

It seemed Donald Cerrone put his bitter feud with former coach Mike Winkeljohn to rest by submitting Mike Perry (highlights) in the co-main event of last night’s (Sat., November 10, 2018) UFC Fight Night 139 from Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

However, even though Cerrone set UFC records for most wins and finishes, his rivalry with Coach Wink rolls on. Winkeljohn released a lengthy statement degrading Cerrone on Instagram today:

“Where was ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone the last 10 years helping others at the gym? Nowhere to be found. He didn’t come to our classes, didn’t even use Greg Jackson his last two fight camps. When he came, he would grab sparring partners, and then he would take those sparring partners back up to his ranch, where he paid for fun, free (expletive). Those guys would sometimes go up there and stay and train, and they’d lose. Hmm.

“Any gym owner would tell you cancer has to be removed. It’s removed. The gym has no drama. It’s a happy place. I’m a happy guy. With that being said, I really wish Mike Perry had not taken ‘Cowboy’ down. Anyway, if you have fighter experience, and you want to come train with the best fighters in the world and help each other – Jon Jones, Holly Holm, Michelle Waterson, Devin Clark, Bevon Lewis, Carlos Condit, Siyar (Bahadurzada), John Dodson and so many others – you’re more than welcome.

“If you’re one of those guys that swings on Donald Cerrone’s you-know-what, that’s weak and weird.”

View this post on Instagram

Loyalty is 2 sided! I haven’t worked with @cowboycerrone in over 10 years. #loyalty @joerogan @mmajunkiedotcom

A post shared by Mike Winkeljohn (@mmacoachwink) on Nov 11, 2018 at 1:51pm PST

The Feud Rages Ahead

Cerrone and Winkeljohn’s rivalry has been raging since ‘Cowboy’ appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and trashed his onetime gym. The UFC vet claimed Winkeljohn only cared about money. He called JacksonWink a ‘puppy mill’ for fighters.

The feud spilled over into the lead-up to UFC Denver after Perry began training at JacksonWink. ‘Cowboy’ got one last shot in via MMAJunkie after his submission over ‘Platinum’:

“My grandma went and told Winkeljohn, ‘You should have bet on the dinosaur,’” Cerrone said. “He knows what he did. It’s all over money, too. That’s the worst part. Looks like he’s still not getting paid, is he?”

That might be part of why Winkeljohn fired back so ferociously. He’s continually claimed that “Cowboy” was only ever about himself and didn’t care about helping out other fighters.

To him, Cerrone was a drama queen who only caused strain on his otherwise happy gym. This feud appears to not be over by a long shot now due to Wink’s latest statement.

Whose side are you joining?

The post Mike Winkeljohn Trolls Donald Cerrone After UFC Denver appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

It seemed Donald Cerrone put his bitter feud with former coach Mike Winkeljohn to rest by submitting Mike Perry (highlights) in the co-main event of last night’s (Sat., November 10, 2018) UFC Fight Night 139 from Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

However, even though Cerrone set UFC records for most wins and finishes, his rivalry with Coach Wink rolls on. Winkeljohn released a lengthy statement degrading Cerrone on Instagram today:

“Where was ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone the last 10 years helping others at the gym? Nowhere to be found. He didn’t come to our classes, didn’t even use Greg Jackson his last two fight camps. When he came, he would grab sparring partners, and then he would take those sparring partners back up to his ranch, where he paid for fun, free (expletive). Those guys would sometimes go up there and stay and train, and they’d lose. Hmm.

“Any gym owner would tell you cancer has to be removed. It’s removed. The gym has no drama. It’s a happy place. I’m a happy guy. With that being said, I really wish Mike Perry had not taken ‘Cowboy’ down. Anyway, if you have fighter experience, and you want to come train with the best fighters in the world and help each other – Jon Jones, Holly Holm, Michelle Waterson, Devin Clark, Bevon Lewis, Carlos Condit, Siyar (Bahadurzada), John Dodson and so many others – you’re more than welcome.

“If you’re one of those guys that swings on Donald Cerrone’s you-know-what, that’s weak and weird.”

View this post on Instagram

Loyalty is 2 sided! I haven’t worked with @cowboycerrone in over 10 years. #loyalty @joerogan @mmajunkiedotcom

A post shared by Mike Winkeljohn (@mmacoachwink) on Nov 11, 2018 at 1:51pm PST

The Feud Rages Ahead

Cerrone and Winkeljohn’s rivalry has been raging since ‘Cowboy’ appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and trashed his onetime gym. The UFC vet claimed Winkeljohn only cared about money. He called JacksonWink a ‘puppy mill’ for fighters.

The feud spilled over into the lead-up to UFC Denver after Perry began training at JacksonWink. ‘Cowboy’ got one last shot in via MMAJunkie after his submission over ‘Platinum’:

“My grandma went and told Winkeljohn, ‘You should have bet on the dinosaur,’” Cerrone said. “He knows what he did. It’s all over money, too. That’s the worst part. Looks like he’s still not getting paid, is he?”

That might be part of why Winkeljohn fired back so ferociously. He’s continually claimed that “Cowboy” was only ever about himself and didn’t care about helping out other fighters.

To him, Cerrone was a drama queen who only caused strain on his otherwise happy gym. This feud appears to not be over by a long shot now due to Wink’s latest statement.

Whose side are you joining?

The post Mike Winkeljohn Trolls Donald Cerrone After UFC Denver appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Leave it to Dana White to say one thing and do another.

Just two days after the polarizing UFC executive told everyone that Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Floyd Mayweather wasn’t happening in boxing, White to revealed ESPN (via MMA Weekly) that he met with “Money’s” team in Los Angeles this week.

“I had a meeting yesterday in Los Angeles about this. I don’t want to say anything that’s going to make it sound like ‘wow this could happen’ but we had talks yesterday.

White said he doesn’t believe the fight will happen in the UFC, but Mayweather’s team didn’t say no:

“I don’t think it’s going to happen. I don’t think the fight would happen in the UFC but they didn’t say no.”

Khabib’s Focus

Reports of the potential boxing match between Khabib and Mayweather have been circling ever since “the Eagle” submitted Conor McGregor at October 6’s UFC 229. But after McGregor went to boxing and was stopped by Mayweather last year, things have changed. White says the boxing great will now have to venture into MMA.

But White still wouldn’t close the door on Khabib vs. Mayweather in boxing. He claimed he hadn’t spoken to his undefeated champion about it yet. If and when Khabib wanted to do it, White said he would reconsider. Overall, however, he thinks Khabib’s focus needs to be on defending his belt:

“We went over there, we boxed him and if he wants to do it again, he’s gotta come fight in the UFC. I don’t think it’s very realistic at all but I didn’t the boxing match was either and it happened so we’ll see.

“There will no be a boxing match. Obviously if it was something that Khabib really wanted to do, we’d sit down and talk about it but I don’t like anything about it. I haven’t talked to Khabib about it at all. His interest needs to be defending his title over here. That’s what he should be focused on.”

No More One-Sided Fights

Mayweather has already opened as a monstrous favorite over Khabib in boxing for obvious reasons, just like he would be a massive dog to Khabib in MMA. White knows the boxing legend is looking to get paid big when with the odds stacked in his favor. White is done with those kind of fights even with the money involved.

But if Mayweather has been working on his ground game, that may be different. If “Money” truly wants to come over to the UFC, White said there’s a spot lined up for him:

“There’s a reason why Floyd Mayweather wants to fight my guys,” White said. “Because there’s big money there for him. Obviously, there’s big money there for us but I’m not into making those kinds of fights.

“If Floyd wants to come over here, he said he’s been wrestling and doing this and that, if he wants to come over and fight in the UFC, he’s more than welcome.”

Even if Mayweather has been wrestling, he’ll never catch up to Khabib. That doesn’t sound like a fight he’d be willing to take – even for the amount of money he’d make.

Should the UFC squash this talk? Or should they leave the door open as White seems to be open to?

The post Dana White Meets With Mayweather Camp About Khabib Fight appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.