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UFC Coach Compares Jon Jones to Lance Armstrong for Failed Drug Tests, Dismissing His GOAT Status
UFC coach likens Jon Jones to Lance Armstrong over failed drug tests, questioning his GOAT status and raising doubts about his legacy in MMA.
Jon Jones is the Lance Armstrong of the UFC. Javier Mendez, one of the most renowned coaches in MMA, thinks that Jones’ failed drug tests are enough reason to rule him out of the GOAT debate. Mendez, who earlier trained Khabib Nurmagomedov and is now the coach of Islam Makhachev, feels that failed tests and PED abuse allegations have a massive impact on the credibility of a fighter. And with Jon Jones failing the tests more than once, he is no longer a clean fighter.
In a recent appearance on the Javier Mendez Podcast, the coach compared Jones to the once-cycling icon, Lance Armstrong. He said, “Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France how many times? And basically he got all those titles taken away from him because of one thing: doping. And even though it was many years later that they caught him, he lost all his Tour de France (titles). Well, it’s been a fact; it’s been proven Jon Jones has been caught doping. So, I’m sorry, I think that disqualifies him just based on that alone.”
Mendez also went on to talk about how Dana White is inclined towards considering Jones as the best UFC fighter of all time. While Mendez stated that White has his reasons to believe Jones’ supremacy, his likeness to Lance Armstrong was what tipped off Mendez.
Well, Mendez does have a valid point here. While ‘Bones’ has surely dominated proceedings in the heavyweight division and has shown enough consistency, he also has a history of multiple failed drug tests. The first of them came when he tested positive for having estrogen blockers in his system. This happened just before his scheduled rematch with Daniel Cormier in 2016. Coming back after the initial suspension, Jones defeated Daniel Cormier in his comeback fight.
Unfortunately, he was found positive for using turinabol, which led to his win being overturned and was slapped with a 15-month suspension. However, as per the revised rules of the US Anti-Doping Agency, the threshold limit for prohibited substances has been given a ceiling of 100 picograms.
This provided Jones with significant advantage as the substances in his test results always came below the 100 picograms mark. In a recent discussion, the UFC color commentator Joe Rogan also mentioned that Jon Jones’ results showed negligible amounts of banned substances in his system.
Thus, having a bittersweet run in the UFC, Jon Jones is in the center of numerous controversies. Still being the champion, Jones will be facing Stipe Miocic next with Tom Aspinall waiting eagerly on the wings. As the twilight phase of Jones’ career approaches, it remains to be seen whether he can keep his dominance in the UFC intact.
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