Chael Sonnen won’t let Jon Jones’ history with performance-enhancing drugs influence his opinion on his greatness.
The debate of former two-division champion Jones’ legacy has been re-sparked when American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez said Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) can’t be considered the greatest fighter of all time with multiple failed drug tests. Mendez previously compared Jones to Lance Armstrong.
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Sonnen, who has openly admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs numerous times in his career which he was caught for, explains why he sees things differently.
“Cleanest athlete of all time? No, it’s not Jon,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Greatest fighter of all time? Different conversation.”
Jones’ second win over Mendez’s student Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 was overturned to a no contest when he tested positive for the anabolic steroid turinabol. His sentence was significantly reduced from four years to a 15-month sentence after he provided “substantial assistance” to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which ran the UFC’s program at the time. Jones stated he did not knowingly take any prohibited substances and that the substances he consumed were tainted.
Jones failed a third drug test prior to his UFC 232 rematch with Alexander Gustafsson when he tested positive for the same turinabol metabolites. However, USADA determined they were trace amounts in the form of picograms incapable of giving Jones a competitive advantage.
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“I think if you’re having the conversation of greatest of all time to exclude Jon Jones – I don’t know that Jon ever took anything that the rest of them didn’t take, but he got caught for it,” Sonnen said. “I’m going to have to go with no. My final analysis is no. Jon Jones failing a PED test makes him not the cleanest fighter of all time. It does not disqualify him from being the greatest fighter of all time.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Chael Sonnen: Failing PED tests doesn’t mean Jon Jones can’t be GOAT
