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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

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Quotes from the peculiar Fox Sports interview with Jon Jones

By Zach Arnold | January 19, 2015

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“He’s the baddest dude in the world.” – Dana White

Charissa Thompson talking about Jones as the face of the sport

Describe last couple of weeks: “Bittersweet. More bitter than sweet.” And: “Just had some very bad news come out. That really sucked.”

Dana called him about cocaine test results. Asked how and why it happened. Day he was tested he knew he would test positive. Didn’t tell anyone. “I kept it very private.” And: “I knew the test would come out positive… Yeah, I knew it would be a positive test. I knew there wasn’t nothing I could do about it.”

Worried about getting suspended to fight Cormier. At weigh-ins, nobody said anything to him so he thought no trouble coming.

“I definitely don’t have an excuse. I’m not here to make excuses for what happened. I did it.”

“I messed up. It wasn’t a mistake because I consciously did it.”

Denied using cocaine between the time of the positive test and the fight with Daniel Cormier.

“I had done it before quite a few times in college. But that’s really it.” And: “Yeah, pretty much. Like I said, I’m not perfect by any means.”

“I do not dab into cocaine. It’s not my thing at all. The night I did it… there’s no excuse.”

“I’ve dipped into my fair share…” (other illegal drugs)

“The whole situation has been really embarrassing. I had to explain to so many people that I’m not a cocaine addict or even a frequent user.”

“No, I know I don’t [have a problem.] They all know that there’s no room in my life to be a cocaine addict.”

“Yeah, absolutely out of character for me. Just a really embarrassing situation.”

Have you apologized to Dana?

“To Dana, to Lorenzo, to my family, to my brothers.”

Said one of his brothers said they see (cocaine usage) a lot in the locker room but it’s not public. Said his phone call to his mother went better than he thought it would.

Claims he, his team, and his lawyers are figuring out why the cocaine test results became public knowledge.

Asked about his epitestosterone levels. “Supposedly both of our levels came back a little bit lower than standard. Every man has a different level of testosterone.” Denied that he and Daniel Cormier “are steroid guys.”

Charissa Thompson noted his mother said Jones stayed in rehab for one day.

“Me going to rehab was a… I would say it was like a collective decision between myself and my business partners.” Said his partners told him to go to rehab and let them decide if he has a cocaine problem. Claimed he met with three doctors for seven hours and came to the conclusion that he didn’t need in-patient treatment. They put him in an out-patient treatment program.

Jones is getting drug tested weekly and counseling sessions happen once, twice, three times a week. Said he doesn’t know how the process works and that he’s getting chewed out for what others are determining.

Who is Jon Jones? “I’m trying to figure out who I am as well. … I think there’s a lot of people out there who can relate to me.” Said the best way to come back from this situation is to continue being a winner.

Said his message to his fans is he’s sorry for betraying their belief in him. “I definitely have let myself down.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “Quotes from the peculiar Fox Sports interview with Jon Jones”

  1. Chief says:

    I honestly don’t get this “scandal”.

    I get being against PED usage — I don’t want an athlete having an advantage over an opponent who may not want to put potentially harmful substances into his body.

    I get being against in-competition usage of drugs such as cocaine — I don’t want a Jon Jones or whomever risking his or his opponent’s life by being in an altered state.

    I don’t get the fan and media outrage over a fighter doing what he wants to do to his own body while not competing. Jon Jones is an adult and can make decisions for hismelf. We’ve no evidence he’s any sort of addict. He didn’t break the rules of the sport, and the law he likely broke is really a joke as a human being should have at least enough sovereignty over their bodies to decide what they want to put in it when relaxing or partying.

    I want Jon Jones to succeed, I want him to be healthy and I want him to be his best self, but I really shouldn’t get a say in establishing his goals or deciding how he needs to achieve them.

  2. Zach Arnold says:

    I don’t get the fan and media outrage over a fighter doing what he wants to do to his own body while not competing. Jon Jones is an adult and can make decisions for hismelf. We’ve no evidence he’s any sort of addict.

    I think you’re stating what most UFC fans are feeling.

    What the backlash seems to be about is how UFC & Fox have portrayed & promoted the story. I’m still unsure what the motivations or thinking behind their PR strategy has been. I’m still unsure what Nevada’s commission is doing testing for cocaine if they’re not going to suspend a fighter for having presence of metabolites in his system before a fight.

    • Muscle Hamster says:

      Nevada shouldn’t have been testing for cocaine/street drugs in the first place. The test result was out of competition so Jones’ usage was unpunishable. The testing was chalked up to an administrative error on the NSAC’s part. Thus the no-comment from Jones regarding legal action – it’s yet to be seen what the full impact of releasing the improperly obtained evidence will be.

      Conspiracy theory – I have a small belief that this whole situation wasn’t accidental. Stars aligned in that Jones used causing him to fail the test. But you can’t catch a fish unless you go fishing for one.

      The whole circumstance is suspect:
      – a fortuitous “administrative error” for street drugs
      – on a fighter with a history of substance issues
      – recognizing they improperly obtained a positive test
      – not keeping that fact private/redacting in their own records
      – allowing the unedited records to be released publicly to the media
      – notifying the UFC of the positive test prior to Jones (which is against procedure afaik)

  3. Chuck says:

    Well, Connor McGregor is a draw. His fight against Siver delivered the highest ratings for a FS1 event with an average of 2.75 million viewers, with the peak of over 3.1 million during the main event. Huge surprise because it ran against the Patriots/Colts game. Will this trend last? Doubt it, but it should still be looked at as a huge success.

  4. rst says:

    For some reason steroids/trt bothers me more then cocaine as far as the sport.
    Nobody is gonna get any advantage in training or in the ring on coke.
    Quite the opposite.

    In fact dwelling on such a peripheral personal issue is getting creepily TMZ-esque.
    When I saw an article on mmatv the other day about some scumbags bringing in “experts” to “read” Jons body language I remembered why I dont go to mmatv or mainstream news sites anymore.
    (Its getting difficult to get my mma news these days.)

    BTW: Congrats rumble.
    Gus needed a humbling, and so does the UFC.
    I hope their new #2 proves to be difficult after they treated him like snot.

  5. Mark says:

    Steve Mazzagatti would be proud of that stoppage.

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