Last week, news dropped that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones failed a drug test in his title winning effort at UFC 214. Jones’ tested positive for the anabolic steroid turinabol in a pre-fight drug screening the day before his fight and has been provisionally suspended while a full investigation is carried out.
When UFC President Dana White spoke to the media shortly after the news broke, he said Jones’ story will make “a great 30 for 30 some day” and now the talk has begun to center on one question: what is Jon Jones’ legacy?For UFC commentator Joe Rogan, Jones’ latest instance of self-sabotage solidifies Jones as the greatest, though perhaps not the kind of greatest Jones would want to be.
Speaking on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast recently, Rogan said that with this latest screw up, Jones has unequivocally established himself as the biggest “f***up” in MMA history.
“Jon Jones, with this, becomes the number one f***up of all time, for sure, if he wasn’t already. This is the biggest one ever. We can only hope and pray that somehow or another there’s some mistake.”
Jones has a history of shooting himself in the foot. Last summer, he failed a USADA drug test ahead of his scheduled rematch with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200; that failure led to him being stripped of his interim title. Before that, Jones was stripped of the actual light heavyweight title when he was involved in a hit-and-run accident that saw the UFC suspend him. On top of all this, there have been frequent allegations of drug use to go along with other legal issues, including a DWI arrest from 2012.
And for Rogan, it all adds up. Even if you want to be skeptical of any one thing, Rogan says that where there’s smoke there’s fire and at this point, any speculation is fair game.
“Here’s the thing, we don’t know what was really going on now [with Jones]. Now I think we are allowed to have complete, open speculation with zero concern for being respectful. After the dick pill thing you gotta go, ‘Look man, the dude was partying, he was taking some dick pills.’ Coke, I don’t give a f*** about coke. That’s not helping you. Then you hear about this and you go, ‘Wait a minute, what is this?’ I want to know what this is.
“This is a weird one because if he was taking what you describe as some short-acting, quick-leaving your system steroid that makes you aggressive, you have to ask how long was he doing this for? Was he doing this during training? Did this amp him up? Did this help his work rate? Did this make him more aggressive and more confident in training. Did it add to his confidence when he was fighting? What is this? We don’t know.”
“This is a weird one because if he was taking what you describe as some short-acting, quick-leaving your system steroid that makes you aggressive, you have to ask how long was he doing this for? Was he doing this during training? Did this amp him up? Did this help his work rate? Did this make him more aggressive and more confident in training. Did it add to his confidence when he was fighting? What is this? We don’t know.”
What we do know is that turinabol is an anabolic agent in the WADA prohibited list that carries a standard punishment of two years. But with Jones’ history of drug test failure, he could be facing a suspension as long as four years. Should Jones prove unable to exonerate himself, a four year suspension means he wouldn’t be eligible to return to fighting until age 34 and he will have lost six years of his fighting prime to poor outside-the-cage decisions. If that comes to pass, it’s hard to argue with Rogan’s assessment.
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