AKA Coach: Jon Jones Is MMA’s Lance Armstrong

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier’s coach Javier Mendez thought Jon Jones had really changed in the lead-up to his clash against “DC” last month.

After Jones’ recent failed drug test came to light earlier this week, however, Mendez is beginning to wonder if it was all just an act. Mendez recently joined MMA Junkie Radio to offer his thoughts on Jones suffering his second consecutive failed test against Cormier, noting he could go down as the Lance Armstrong of mixed martial arts (MMA) if found guilty (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“He’s going to be known as the greatest who coulda-woulda-shoulda and never has been,” Mendez said. “It’s just the same like Lance Armstrong. He’s the greatest cyclist of all time, but then they proved he cheated, and where’s Lance Armstrong now? What’s he known as? That’s what’s going to happen here.”

“I was feeling really good about the way he was acting around the fight, so I was thinking, ‘Hey, this guy’s changed,’” Mendez said. “I was saying, maybe this has all been good for him. But I don’t know. Is he really being real, or is he just acting that way?”

Much like Cormier, who spoke out on the matter with an official statement just hours after the news broke, Mendez is trying not to jump to any conclusions until the findings are confirmed. If it turns out that Jones did, in fact, knowingly take a banned substance ahead of the fight, Mendez feels as though Jones robbed everyone of the chance to find out who the real 205-pound king is:

“If you want to fast forward, and it’s proven as fact, then I’d be really upset, because you robbed yourself, you robbed the public, and you robbed ‘D.C.’ of the opportunity to find a clean fighter to see who really is the pound-for-pound greatest light heavyweight of all time,” Mendez said.

Mendez was then asked what he’d say to Jones if he could speak face-to-face with him, to which the coach responded that he doesn’t think he’d have anything to say:

“I don’t think I’d say anything to him,” Mendez said. “He is who he is. I’d just accept him and move forward. You’d like to think he’s changed, but all fingers are pointing that he hasn’t changed.”

If Jones is unable to clear his name and prove that his failed test was the result of nothing more than a tainted substance once again, Mendez speculated that it will be tough to believe that Jones has been clean his whole career:

“How is it not possible for people to think, ‘Has he ever been clean? Are all of his UFC fights?’ You have to question that,” Mendez said. “I definitely would question that. But he still has due process, so still has an opportunity to clear himself, and if he does, then all of this is just talk.”