Oh Jon…you and your hypocrisy. Back in 2015 Jon Jones was up in arms about a fighter climbing in to The Octagon to face him with banned substances in his system. Reports began to surface that Vitor Belfort had a sketchy drug test result just a few weeks before his UFC 152 bout with Jones. Jon was almost submitted by Vitor after he secured an armbar in the first round giving him his first real scare as champion. He would attribute that armbar to Belfort’s use of banned substances in follow up interviews.
The reports in question about the sketchy test came from sites like Deadspin that said Vitor had elevated levels of testosterone and the results were never reported to anyone at anytime.
Jon spoke with MMA Fighting about it.
I remember at the weigh-ins, I looked at his abs and I’m like, dude, I’m like several years younger than you and you look way tighter than me. And I knew I trained pretty hard for that camp. Everybody has always speculated Vitor for being on steroids. But to know they put me in there with him knowing he was on them, it’s really a slap in the face.
Vitor Belfort was on steroids when I fought him. The UFC was very well aware way before the fight. They did nothing to penalize him. They let the fight go on knowing that I was fighting a guy on steroids, which is a hazard to my life.
I haven’t brought it up to them yet. But the fans know. It all gets back to what I was saying about power of the UFC and this athletic commission. Eventually something needs to be done about it.
Vitor was on TRT but allegedly had testosterone levels much higher than normal for someone who was on the treatment. UFC senior vice president Dave Sholler came out after the UFC became aware of the sites reporting it as real news.
That period of time with TRT is one that was tricky for everyone: For the UFC, for athletic commissions, and for athletes alikeI think when everyone came to a conclusion it didn’t have a place in the sport and was outlawed in 2014, we were quick to make sure that we too followed suit, as Nevada has said.
Jon was recently stripped of his newly won UFC light heavyweight championship for (allegedly) failing a USADA drug test for – you guessed it – steroids. The results came back in quick fashion after he knocked out Daniel Cormier at UFC 214.