Jon Jones’ Former Opponent Wonders If He Was on Steroids

In light of recent events, former UFC interim light heavyweight championship challenger Ovince Saint Preux (OSP) believes Jon Jones could have been on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) during their bout against one another at UFC 197 in April of 2016.

OSP recently joined Submission Radio to discuss Jones’ recent failed drug test from UFC 214 this past July and said he ‘of course’ believes Jones was on PEDs when they fought (quotes via Bloody Elbow):

“I mean, of course,” OSP said. “I did an article a while back saying, I just wanted him to tell the truth. But at the end of the day, with me, I just wanted to know. But at the end of the day, what can I do about it? It’s a situation where I’ve learned, especially like my fight when I fought Volkan. You know, I walked in the locker room and I caught myself screaming, and I was like, ‘Why am I mad for?’ I did everything I did, I poured my heart out in the fight. I trained hard, I felt like I won the fight. Like I said, I out-landed him by over 50 punches.

“But at the end of the day, after that I looked at my trainer, I was like, ‘I’m back in the gym Monday, we need to find a fight, it’s on to the next one.’ By then, my mindset was already onto the next one. And at the end of the day, when anything happens, everything comes out to light eventually. You can’t hold onto the same thing over and over again, everything always comes out to light.”

When asked if knowing whether or not Jones was on PEDs during their fight last year would give him closure on the loss, OSP couldn’t quite put his finger on it:

“Maybe, maybe not,” OSP said. “Cause at the end of the day it’s like, can I dwell on it? Yeah. But if I was dwelling on it, I’m holding onto the past and there’s no reason for me to do that. So my mindset is always going to be to be like, I’m here in the present, concentrate on present. Cause whatever is gonna put me in the present, however I perceive myself right now, then the future’s gonna be that much better. I can’t perceive myself the way I did in the past and whatnot, especially me getting down on myself. And that’s another form of mental skills training where that comes in the head. I gotta end up elevating my mind a lot more.”

If the opportunity once again arose for Saint Preux to step into the Octagon against “Bones” once again, however, the University Of Tennessee alumni wouldn’t necessarily rule out the possibility:

“Not necessarily,” OSP said. “Because at the end of the day, as much scrutiny as he’s been under, especially these past two years and what not, I would say he’s walking a tightrope. And even if the results come back negative, he’s still gonna have that bubble of people that’s gonna be like, ‘We still don’t like you,’ or, ‘We still think you’re this bad guy.’ But at the end of the day, even if it comes back negative, you know how much scrutiny he’s gonna be or how many eyes are gonna be on him? Do you know how much times USADA might pop up at his house?

“It’s one of those things where, okay, it came positive – if something comes back positive and they do sample B and it comes back negative, they’re gonna actually keep more eyes on you just for the simple fact that it’s one of those things where, ‘We need to figure out how this happened, because this was just positive, now it’s negative. Something went wrong there.’ So they’re gonna dial in him a lot more anyway. But if it comes back positive, I mean shoot, he’s gone for the next two to three years.”