WELL, you wouldn’t expect anything else from a man nicknamed ‘Sexual Chocolate’ would you?
Jon Jones, 31, will go down as one of the greatest fighters the UFC as ever seen, but away from the Octagon his life has been tainted by controversies that have earned him a reputation as the bad boy of MMA.
The New York-born fighter, who will take on Brazilian Thiago Santos at UFC 239 this weekend in Las Vegas, has faced multiple bans during his checkered career, including once for testing positive after taking male-enhancement pills.
Father-of-four Jones, worth £8m, also dodged a prison sentence in 2015 for his involvement in a hit-and-run incident that left a pregnant woman with a broken arm.
He was deemed to have disgraced the sport by UFC President Dana White, and was stripped of the light heavyweight title.
But it’s being found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs that have left a bad-taste in fans’ mouths that detract from the accomplishments Jones has had in the UFC.
And despite being a three-time champion, including being the youngest to ever win a UFC title at the age of 23, there are several instances that blight his achievements.
In 2015, it was announced that Jones had failed a drug test – testing positive for benzoylecgonine, the primary metabolite of cocaine.
The results came to light just a month before he was due to fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 182.
However, because benzoylecgonine is not banned out-of-competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the fight went ahead.
Jones was tested again a week later and the substance was out of his system before he went toe-to-toe with Cormier.
Still, he was fined around £20k for violating the UFC’s Athlete Code of Conduct policy and spent time in rehab (a meagre one day) for his sins.
“I’m not a cocaine addict by any means or not even a frequent user,” he said.
“I just made a really dumb decision and got caught with my pants down in this whole situation.”
Then, in 2016 he was suspended for a year after testing positive for two banned substances, clomiphene, an anti-estrogenic substance, and letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor ahead of a another fight with Cormier at UFC 200.
I have been in the UFC many, many years, and I have taken sex pills several times throughout my adult life. (I) Highly recommend it, guys. (It’s) f****** great.”
Jones reaction to failing drug test due to sex pills
Jones protested his innocence, claiming he didn’t know what he had taken was on the anti-doping list, and said the failed test was probably down to “dick pills” he takes to enhance his love life.
“I have been in the UFC many, many years, and I have taken sex pills several times throughout my adult life,” Jones joked at a press conference.
“(I) Highly recommend it, guys. (It’s) f****** great. It’s awesome.”
In 2017, Jones lost his UFC light heavyweight title after testing positive for the steroid Turinabol.
Again, he proclaimed he had done nothing wrong – and was reportedly devastated by his third failed drug test, which could’ve ended his career.
The California State Athletic Commission revoked Jones’ licence and fined him around £150k.
He was suspended for 15 months, but it was proved at a later date that “the violation was not intended nor could it have enhanced” his performance.
Jones had to wait 17 months before he could fight again.
In 2015, cops revealed they were looking for ‘Bones’ in connection with a hit-and-run incident in New Mexico.
It was alleged he had gone through a red light and crashed a rental car into two other vehicles, before reportedly fleeing the scene of the crash on foot.
More importantly, he left an injured pregnant woman behind in another vehicle, who suffered a fractured arm.
An off-duty police officer witnessed the accident and was able to ID the brawler, while paperwork for the rental car revealed Jones’ details.
Cops also found a pipe with some marijuana inside the rented Buick.
Jones turned himself in at Albuquerque Police Department on the advice of his lawyers later that day, but had to post a £2k bail to leave his gritty prison cell at the Bernalillo County Metro Detention Center.
The UFC stripped Jones of his light heavyweight champion title, removed him from the official rankings, and suspended the star indefinitely for violating the Athlete Code of Conduct Policy.
Four months after handing himself in, Jones appeared in front of a judge where he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was subsequently sentenced to up to 18 months of supervised probation.
In that time, he met all the conditions expected of him – and made 72 separate appearances for charity or youth outreach, which meant he avoided a felony charge on his criminal record.
His redemption also worked in favour with the UFC, who welcomed him back to the fold a year later.
Jones boasts an incredible record of 24 wins from 26 bouts in the UFC.
The loss was a disqualification for using illegal downward elbows in a fight against Matt Hamill, which Dana White is trying to get overturned, while his KO win against Cornier was overturned and called a no contest after his failed Turinabol drug test in 2017.
Remarkably, no one has ever stopped Jones from winning – and his biggest enemy has always been himself.
But being a pro athlete is something that runs in his family too. Both his brothers, at one time or another, have played in the NFL.
His elder bro Arthur enjoyed success with the Baltimore Ravens, winning Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.
Not to be left out, Jon’s younger brother Chandler is also a Super Bowl winner, and was victorious two years after Arthur with the New England Patriots.
Maybe, perhaps, Jones is misunderstood.
After all, this is a man who once thwarted a robbery of an elderly lady – just hours before he was due to step in the Octagon.
It all went down in New Jersey in 2011, where Jones was getting some last minute training in at a local park.
He was interrupted by the screams of a woman shouting that she had been robbed by a man who had broken her car window and stolen her GPS.
Like a superhero, Jones leapt into action and chased the man down, caught the suspect and held him until the police came.
Later that evening he fought Brazilian Maurício Rua and won by a third-round TKO that gave him his first MMA championship belt. What a champ.
