Sonnen: Jon Jones assisting USADA isn’t true, only used ‘loophole’ to shorten suspension

Bloodyelbow.com

Chael Sonnen recently discussed Jon Jones’ latest positive VADA test, and the whole controversy about how he is still eligible to continue fighting. In the middle of all of that, the UFC veteran made some interesting claims about his former opponent in Jones.

“If anyone ever gets flagged on one of these tests, in the eyes of the media, he was always taking steroids — illegal steroids. In some cases that’s true. In this case, that would be true,” Sonnen said about Jones.

Jones was suspended for testing positive for clomiphene and letrozole in 2016. In 2017, Jones tested positive for turinabol, but the UFC champion maintained his innocence throughout both suspensions.

Sonnen, who is no stranger to banned substances himself, states that Jones not ingesting PEDs intentionally was only partly true.

“Jon was working the story of ‘I have no idea. I didn’t take anything and I have no idea where this came from,’ and he was sticking to that. He was even ‘hey I’ll take a lie detector test, I’ll cough up some tears for you guys. I’ve never even heard of this stuff before.’ Well, he was telling the truth.

“All of that was true. He was taking a different banned substance that was contaminated with thisbanned substance,” Sonnen claimed. “So when this one came out, he’s sitting there with his pants down, ‘oh man I’ve never even heard of that. I feel like I’m being victimized. I never took that.’ — he was telling the truth, intent-wise.

“I could get more into detail. I could tell you specifically what he was doing and how he was doing it, but the point is, it was contaminated with this, and it’s not the first time that has happened. Not even the first time at the gym he’s training at that that has happened.”

Sonnen is likely referring to Jones’ former teammate in Frank Mir, who also tested positive for turinabol.

These claims are unsubstantiated, but for what it’s worth, Jones had his supplements tested and never found the source of the steroid in his system. If Sonnen is somehow right though, Jones obviously wouldn’t be able to present USADA with a different PED that caused the turinabol failure.

Sonnen went on to say that he believes Jones didn’t reingest turinabol during this recent controversy, but did state that he was “under-punished” and only used USADA’s “snitching clause” as a loophole despite not having any real information.“(Jones) was taking a different banned substance that was contaminated with this banned substance”

“I am seeing Jon falsely disparaged for having retaken banned substances. That’s not true. The conclusion and the analysis is accurate that this is residue that is left over,” he said. “My conclusion and analysis that he was under-punished …. I’m just a guy looking at the rules that understands that on your second violation, you have a minimum of two years. Had they gone through that, we wouldn’t be in this spot (because there would no longer be turinabol residue in his system).

“It’s a matter of how far are people willing to dig — maybe they’re not, maybe they’re willing to let it go away — all the way to Jon Jones being a rat. Taking a clause to help out, turned out not to be true,” Sonnen claimed. “He took the deal. He had no information. He’s never going to obtain information. He was never meant to do that. That was absolutely meant to catch a loophole within the rules and get it applied.”

Jones used a clause that allows an athlete to provide “substantial assistance” to USADA in exchange for a shorter sentence.

According to the policy, Jones’ information should result to discovering or bringing forward “an Anti-Doping Policy Violation by another Person” or “a criminal offense or the breach of professional rules committed by another Person.”

Specifics of his assistance weren’t revealed, but Jones went from facing a possible four year suspension to just 15 months.

This isn’t the first time Sonnen has made claims about Jones and PED use. In 2016, Sonnen also alleged that Jones hid under the cage for hours to avoid USADA. His coaches at JacksonWink have denied this afterwards.