Tim Kennedy: I Could Smell Weed & Booze On Jon Jones In Training
Former UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy has revealed he could often smell weed and alcohol on light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones in training.
The troubled 205lb champion has had a well documented battle with excessive partying which has included drug use and issues with the law which have seriously hampered his career.
In his last two fights Jones has been way under par in terms of his performance levels and he has faced heavy criticism as a result. Former teammate Kennedy believes the criticism the champion is recieivng is justfied.
“I think it’s well deserved.” Kennedy told Submission Radio. “When he was like the hungry young lion and his personal life wasn’t bleeding over into his professional life, you saw a ferocious Mike Tyson-like thing, right? And then success came along and so did money and fame and bad decisions and DUI’s and bribes and coke and strippers, and with that, I’m not saying that correlation is causation, but you have definitely seen a decline in performance, or the really large exclamation mark on how a fight is viewed while those kind of life decisions are happening. So, the technique, the talent, the skill is still in that fighter of Jon Jones, and like, for all contenders, I hope you all pray that his life is still a disaster, because if he get his life in order, like, that dude’s gonna be unstoppable.”
The now retired UFC middleweight told Submission Radio how he could often smell weed and booze on Jones and those were the only days he’d be able to get the better of the all-time great fighter.
“When he’s right, I hated training with him because he was so dominant. And then when he was off, like, if he had a night when he went out, you know, I could smell it. You know, you can smell booze, you can smell the weed. As an athlete, like, when you start sweating, all those things come out. And when I would smell that, I would be like, alright, today’s my day, let me get his back, or I’m gonna push the pace, or in the 4th, 5th minute of these rounds, he’s gonna deal with a more aggressive version. So, it was almost night and day in the gym.”
“It was always absolute pain, but I got my best looks on days after he had nights where he was being his worst.”
Is Jon Jones recent poor performances a sign he’s started partying again?
