Coach: Only One Man Can Beat Jon Jones
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is considered by many to be the greatest fighter of all-time, and without question to be the greatest 205 pounder of all-time, although trouble outside of the cage has hindered his professional fighting career. The latest incident regarding Jones occurred when he was pulled from his massive rematch with Daniel Cormier just days before the landmark UFC 200 event due to a potential anti-doping violation.
A possible punishment for Jones or a solution to the issue has yet to be announced, but the former pound-for-pound king could be facing a two year suspension. Jones’ longtime striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, doesn’t appear to be too worried, however, saying that there’s only one man who could beat “Bones”:
“Oh no. You know what, assuming he doesn’t get distracted on time off – and what we’re talking about is just hypothetical,” Winkeljohn said on an edition of Submission Radio when asked if two years away could leave Jones less competitive. “I don’t know how much time off, so I’m not sure if I should even worry about that at the moment. I’ve always said no one beats Jon Jones but himself. That’s it. And he’s got many, many years to keep going and figure this out if he’s got the opportunity to and if it turns out that he’s able to.”
This may be a fair statement given the fact that Jones is currently 22-1 in his professional mixed martial arts career with his only loss coming by way of disqualification in a bout he was clearly winning. The former champion has run through a murderer’s row of 205-pound contenders while rarely getting challenged. With that being said, Winkeljohn feels as if Jones beat himself regarding the UFC 200 debacle, saying that he and his management must be aware of what goes into his body:
“Oh I was pissed off at that situation in that he’s gotta be careful.” Winkeljohn said about Jones getting pulled from UFC 200. “We’ve gotta be careful. Everyone’s gotta be careful. Everything you put in your body, no matter who gives it to you, you can’t just take whatever, because you never know what’s in there, what it’s tainted with, what’s going to come up on a drug test. And I don’t think he would have done anything out of the ordinary to try to do a performance enhancer type situation, but what’s going on is apparently something’s tainted and hopefully that’s what’s going to come out here soon and then hopefully all this bad talk about Jon Jones will start going away and we’ll get him back to fighting.”
“I think it’s both,” he continued, talking about whether it’s on Jones or his management to check his supplements. “You know, I think it’s both. There’s no doubt about it and he’s learned – I think he’s learned that he’s gotta pay attention to these things and his management has learned that they gotta help him pay attention to those things. So everybody is getting on board and paying attention a little bit more, because these tests are popping up and it seems to be happening quite often that people are taking something that was made by a company that has some illegal stuff, and maybe they’re using the same machines to pack it. I’m not sure how it happens, but trace amounts are coming up. So with that being said, people just have to be really careful and just go back to eating normal diets and don’t take anything else but vegetables and meats and good food.”
Do you expect to see Jones back in the Octagon any time soon?
