Morning Report: Joe Rogan says weed-fueled conversation might have led Jon Jones to JacksonWink MMA

Jon Jones has had his struggles with drugs, but apparently, they may also be in some way responsible for him becoming one of the greatest fighters ever.

On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Joe Rogan and his longtime friend Ari Shaffir reminisced about their experiences hanging out with fighters outside of the cage. Shaffir eventually told a story about the two of them smoking marijuana with Jon Jones in Rogan’s hotel room – back before Jones had become a household name – and then Rogan revealed that that weed-fueled conversation may have directly influenced Jones’ decision to move out to Albuquerque and start training with Greg Jackson.

“Early on Jon Jones, he wasn’t anything then – 4-0, maybe, something like that – meeting him, talking about s**t – and I can talk about this now because it’s no longer a banned substance in the UFC – talking about weed. And he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s smoke, bro.’ He wasn’t anything. He wasn’t anything, and just going like, ‘Who’s got weed?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, Rogan’s got it, but he’s in his hotel room,’ and texting you . . . ‘Hey, man, are you up?’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m kind of tired. I’m going to sleep.’

“It was like, ‘F**k, Jon, I think he doesn’t want us up there,’ and then be like, ‘No, no, let’s go. He’s got the weed. Let’s go.’ Because some fan gave it to us, right? You had this f**king tinfoil of weed, and just knocking on your door, and you’re like, ‘What?’ You were tired. And it was like, ‘Do you have that weed?’ . . . So you opened the door fully, looked at me and this young fighter and were like, ‘Come on in.’ And we all smoked pot in this hotel room in wherever it was. think Montreal, actually, and it was just a fun time, and then seeing this guy move on to become the baddest motherf**ker on the planet.”

“We also had a conversation with him about I was wanting him to go to a different camp,” Rogan interjected. “I was like, ‘You’re too good. You should be in a real camp.’ He was like, ‘You really think so?’ I was like, ‘I know so.’

“I go, ‘You only have a certain amount of time in this thing. Your time should be invested with a real coach who’s going to hone your skills. You could be an all-time great, man.’ I remember telling him that. He was like, ‘You really think so?’ I go, ‘I know so. You’ve really got to move on.’”

Jones came up on the New York regional circuit, making a name for himself while training out of Team Bombsquad. He was signed to the UFC and picked up a few wins, then spent a brief amount of time at TriStar in Montreal before settling on JacksonWink as his permanent fight camp. Shortly after the move, Jones began the signature run of his career, dominating his way to the UFC light heavyweight championship and eight consecutive title defenses before his outside-the-cage issues got in the way. Rogan says he hopes his words were helpful to Jones as the young fighter was figuring out the best path for his career to take.

“I hope it helped,” Rogan said. “I mean, he might have done it anyway. Who knows? But I think it was a good conversation to have with a young guy. Like, ‘Listen man, you have real talent. You could really be something, but you’ve got to be coached by guys who are going to find out your tendencies.’

“He was so good, who knows how far – he might have been a world champion even with the camp that he was in. He was so good, and his wrestling is so powerful and he’s so physically talented, but it made a big difference, him to go to Jackson’s and be able to train on a regular basis with world-class fighters.”

Jones will finally return to the cage later this year after a 15-month suspension for failing a USADA drug test. He takes on Alexander Gustafsson for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 232on Dec. 29 in a rematch of their 2013 Fight of the Year.