Disgraced former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has always done whatever he wants despite the rules in place – whether it’s using performance-enhancing drugs or breaking the law, “Bones” has proven time and time again that he believes the rules don’t apply to him.
And the resulting inability to compete simply a massive loss for mixed martial arts fans and the sport as a whole.
Perhaps it’s the fact that Jones is still the youngest ever UFC fighter to win a belt, or maybe it’s because he’s never truly been beaten throughout 24 professional MMA bouts. Whatever the reason, Jones clearly plays by his own rules despite the consequences.
We broke down the six times Jones thought the rules didn’t apply to him, and it wasn’t easy paring it down to six, either. Check them out.
6. Jon “Scarface” Jones
Who would have known that Jones was a fan of the ol’ booger sugar? Well, at this point it’s hardly a surprise, but at the time, Jones tested positive for cocaine metabolites, the young champion’s reputation was still relatively intact.
Throughout the early portion of his meteoric rise to the championship, Jones frequently professed his faith as a Christian and came across as a good role model for young fight fans.
But that made the revelation of Jones’ cocaine use all the more shocking. It just didn’t jive with the wholesome persona “Bones” had cultivated over the years. It was the beginning of a long, arduous downward spiral for Jones that continues to this very day.
Jones made his typical excuses when the news surfaced and went to rehab for an impactful one day, but the damage to his reputation had already been done.
Jon Jones second failed USADA test was certainly a massive hit to his career, but to hear his manager tell it, he could be back this year as long as USADA is “a respectable organization.” Jones’ manager Malki Kawa revealed this most recent update on The Luke Thomas show (via MMA Mania): “By the end […]
Jon Jones second failed USADA test was certainly a massive hit to his career, but to hear his manager tell it, he could be back this year as long as USADA is “a respectable organization.”
Jones’ manager Malki Kawa revealed this most recent update on The Luke Thomas show (via MMA Mania):
“By the end of this month I think we get some clarity on the issues. We have a hearing with the California State Athletic Commission and we’re hoping to get the investigation with USADA wrapped up by then, as well.”
“Hopefully it all works out that way. I got to assume that by the end of March, for a fact, we will get this resolved and get an idea of what it’s looking like. I’d like to say about a 95-percent chance (he fights in 2018).”
Jones had recaptured the light heavyweight belt with a stunning third-round knockout of longtime foe Daniel Cormier at July 2017’s UFC 214, but once again was stripped of his title after failing an in-competition test again.
But despite all of Jones repeated issues, Kawa claims Jones never used Turinabol and that USADA will find he did not willingly take any PED:
“If USADA is a respectable organization, which I think that they are, and they take all the information they compiled, all the interviews that they’ve done and all the things they’ve seen, they know for a fact that Jon Jones was not cheating and he was not intentionally taking any kind of substance. I think they know that and everybody can come to that conclusion based on the circumstances of his situation. That’s the most I am going to say at this point because it is obviously on-going.”
Jones has been relatively silent about the matter until Kawa’s most recent update regarding the adjudication of his USADA case. Jones’ other infractions include positive tests for cocaine metabolites and estrogen blockers, making his most recent failed test simply another on a growing list of issues outside of the cage.
Meanwhile, Cormier was reinstated as champion and defended the title against Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220, leading to him getting a super fight with heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at July’s UFC 226.
Do you expect to see Jones fighting again anytime soon?
Every fighter, no matter how great they may be or have been, has a weakness that served as their Achilles heel. Whether it be a expert striker’s proclivity for takedowns, or a wrestler who can’t seem to escape from triangle chokes, no mixed martial artist is bereft of weakness. Let’s take a look at the […]
Every fighter, no matter how great they may be or have been, has a weakness that served as their Achilles heel. Whether it be a expert striker’s proclivity for takedowns, or a wrestler who can’t seem to escape from triangle chokes, no mixed martial artist is bereft of weakness.
Let’s take a look at the ten greatest weaknesses that have plagued fighters throughout their career.
10. Dominick Cruz – Injuries
Perhaps one of the best and quickest bantamweight fighter, Dominick Cruz has had tremendous success in winning the 135 pound title twice and being the second and last man to beat flyweight kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.
In spite of all his success, Cruz has repeatedly dealt with broken hands, torn ACLs, and the resulting surgeries that follow.
Cruz was stripped of the title after years of inactivity following a torn ACL while training to fight Urijah Faber in 2012, and although he finally returned to run through Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178, he tore his ACL again and was forced out of action until he triumphantly returned to win the title back from current champ TJ Dillashaw in January 2016.
Cruz defended the title against Faber but lost it to ‘The California Kid’s’ Team Alpha Male protege Cody Garbrandt to end the year. He was set to take on rising contender Jimmie Rivera in a potential title eliminator at December 30’s UFC 219, but a broken arm forced him out of yet another bout due to injury.
If Cruz’s hands were as durable as concrete, his knees more sturdy, and his limbs unbreakable, he’d be the best bantamweight alive right now. But unfortunately, that’s not the case, making this weakness a highly important – and omnipresent – vulnerability.
The Jon Jones saga continues its way down the rabbit hole. After failing a pre-fight USADA test for his UFC 214 title fight against Daniel Cormier, the newest twist is that Jones actually passed a blood test from USADA on the night of UFC 214. Mind you, that blood test didn’t test for Turinabol, an […]
The Jon Jones saga continues its way down the rabbit hole. After failing a pre-fight USADA test for his UFC 214 title fight against Daniel Cormier, the newest twist is that Jones actually passed a blood test from USADA on the night of UFC 214.
Mind you, that blood test didn’t test for Turinabol, an anabolic steroid and the substance Jones popped for. So, while him passing a blood test may look like a very positive development, it may be, but only in the sense that it casts an extreme shadow of doubt on the timing and sequence of his passed tests in comparison to his positive one. It does not exonerate him from taking Turinabol in any way at this time, which means Jones is far from out of the water with USADA.
Jones’ manager Malki Kawa was encouraged by Jones’ previous test results, however, and spoke on the matter on The MMA Hour last week.
“I’m encouraging everyone to go out there and take a look at the tests he passed and the test he failed. It’s a three-week window the month of the fight. Jon has passed seven unannounced tests, and the one he’s going to fail is the one that’s announced? It’s weird to me, there’s a lot of things here that don’t add up, and to the UFC, it doesn’t add up.
“The UFC knows. They look at his tests on the 6th and the 7th, and he passed both of those, there’s nothing in his system. So for him to start doing steroids, especially the steroid they’re saying he took, he would’ve had to have been doing that steroid for awhile for it to actually do anything. He just took it to take it? I mean, to me, there’s a lot of issues with this.”
There may have been a discrepancy or two, but that doesn’t erase the fact that if he is found to have wittingly used banned steroids, Jones shouldn’t and won’t get the benefit of the doubt due to his past indiscretions. He’s already been stripped of the belt before for a similar situation, and even tested positive for cocaine metabolites in the past.
At this point, many feel one single red flag is enough to assume the absolute worst even if Jones is owed full due process, and even though he is, it’s tough to not assume the worst from “Bones” even if it hasn’t been officially adjudicated yet.
Kawa is nobly defending his client and has done so since the story broke. But Jones and his team have always had some oddball excuses for his failed tests. One was that he took “dick pills” like Cialis that supposedly contained banned substances Clomiphene and Letrozol and lead to his forced withdrawal from his UFC 2– rematch with Cormier.
So to give Jones the benefit of the doubt would mean to ignore all his past blunders and your own intuition. Jones looked incredible in his knockout victory over Cormier, a man who had never been finished, at UFC 214. It’s sad to now understand perhaps some of the reasons behind that amazing performance. Some of it is Jones, no matter how you cut it. The man is an MMA savante and could easily win without taking steroids.
So don’t hold your breath on Jones and this convenient blood test changing the inevitable, at least not quite yet. It is definitely puzzling, yet if history has shown us anything, Jones could easily be stripped of his championship and suspended for two to four years.
Cherish those moments he blessed us with in the cage, indiscretions be damned. Because something tells me we may not be seeing them again for a long time.
Now that the MMA world has had two full days to digest the disappointing news that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones tested positive for banned anabolic steroid Turinabol following his third-round knockout of rival Daniel Cormier in the main event of July 29’s UFC 214, the sequence of events now moves on to Jones’ […]
Now that the MMA world has had two full days to digest the disappointing news that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones tested positive for banned anabolic steroid Turinabol following his third-round knockout of rival Daniel Cormier in the main event of July 29’s UFC 214, the sequence of events now moves on to Jones’ due process and the testing of his B sample before it moves on to exactly what his punishment will be.
It’s the latest in a long, winding, and ultimately disturbing series of outside-the-cage troubles for the ultra-talented “Bones,” a fighter so rare and dominant that many, including myself, were quick to re-anoint him as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts history after he floored Cormier with a head kick and brutal ground and pound last month. By now the troubles, which always seem to be centered on recreational and performance-enhancing drugs, have become well-documented over and again to the point fans are probably tired of reading about them.
But to summarize, drug test failures for cocaine and driving under the influence charges lead to a disturbing early morning hit-and-run accident in his adopted home of Albuquerque, New Mexico that left a 25-year-old pregnant woman with a broken arm. He didn’t make it his re-scheduled UFC 200 rematch with Cormier due to a failed pre-fight screen for banned substances clomiphene and letrozole, both known as masking agents. Unfortunately, he was able to fight at UFC 214, however, brutalizing his greatest foe with a finish so decisive there left no doubt as to who was the greatest light heavyweight in UFC history – or so we thought.
Now, Jones is owed his due process, a phrase repeated so often during these whirlwind two days that it would seem as if not one person is willing to consider that a realistic process afforded Jones at this point. Many may feel that way, but overall, it’s just becoming hard to blame them after the latest incident to mar a huge pay-per-view headliner featuring Jones.
MMA Weekly
His team is claiming another (yawn) tainted supplement – predictably – and that’s a defense they used when Jones claimed to have tested positive for clomiphene due to his use of a sexual enhancement enhancer, or more affectionately, a ‘dick pill.’ But Jones didn’t get off based on that the first time, as his one-year USADA suspension only just expired when he fought Cormier a second time. The tainted supplement, if it even proves to be the case, is most likely not going to save “Bones” from another long suspension, which could be up to four years this time, due to fighters having to screen any and everything they put in their bodies.
UFC president Dana White isn’t sure we’ll ever see Jones in the octagon again – and indeed that may be the case. However, after a couple days to mull it over, I wouldn’t rush to such a conclusion just yet, even though that was admittedly my first reaction. Jones has shown an almost preternatural ability to somehow bounce back from what seems like certain doom based on a pointless risking of his reputation and brand just like he displays preternatural abilities in dispatching his opponents in the cage.
He came back from every mishap he’s created before, and even though he’s facing his toughest test in terms of his rep being stepped on, and by his own hand if it is proven that he willingly took anabolic steroids before he rematched Cormier. The moral high road isn’t going to play into any “Bones’” comeback as much as the angry mobs with pitchforks and torches may hope for, either, and the UFC needs elite draws to headline PPV events more than ever, something they got for the first time all year with Jones at UFC 214.
It’s clearly going to take a cataclysmic mess-up for them to stop signing Jones for headliners – but what is worse than knocking out a world-class rival with by kicking them in the head while having used steroids (if that is the case)? Situations like that are exactly why the UFC decided to enlist USADA to enact heavily increased and more stringent testing in MMA in the first place. “Bones” ability to beat the best MMA talent in the world in the octagon will seemingly always supersede his tendency to screw up outside of it
A lot – even a ton – could change before Jones is actually able to return to MMA, if he ever does. Just don’t be surprised if somehow, he does.
Following Jon Jones’ positive test for steroids on Tuesday, fighters and fans alike were extremely quick to throw the book at “Bones”. As a two-time steroid offender and one-time cocaine metabolites offender, many fans and UFC colleagues of Jones are frankly fed up with his antics and he no longer has the benefit of our […]
Following Jon Jones’ positive test for steroids on Tuesday, fighters and fans alike were extremely quick to throw the book at “Bones”. As a two-time steroid offender and one-time cocaine metabolites offender, many fans and UFC colleagues of Jones are frankly fed up with his antics and he no longer has the benefit of our collective doubt.
While many were quick to pass judgment on Jones, the very organization that tested and notified him of the failure emphasized due process and the right for Jones to once again try and prove his innocence.
“We can’t comment on an on-going case, but importantly all athletes under the UFC anti-doping program are innocent unless and until the established process determines otherwise,” a USADA spokesperson on Jones’ most recent test. “As part of this process, Mr. Jones is given the opportunity to be heard, confront and cross examine the evidence and have the ultimate decision of whether he violated the rules or not be decided by independent judges. It’s only fair to let due process occur before drawing any conclusions about Mr. Jones.”
The news couldn’t come at a worse time for Jones and the UFC, as Jones was riding high on a spectacular but now possibly tainted third-round knockout win over rival and incumbent champ Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 last weekend. Meanwhile, the UFC is just days away from putting their biggest star in a boxing ring against a 49-0 Floyd Mayweather.
Certainly seems to be uncertain and stressful times at the UFC headquarters.
Jones hasn’t been officially stripped of the title as of Wednesday night, but the possibility is on the table, alongside up to a four year suspension due to his prior USADA offenses.
