Jon Jones: “One Thing I Didn’t Do Is Snitch On Anybody In MMA”
Jon Jones has no time for your accusations that he’s a snitch.
Many were surprised when Jones’ USADA suspension was knocked down to 15-months despite his second failure for PEDs and third failure overall. Part of the reduction was due to Jones providing “substantial assistance” during the appeals process. Some believed the “substantial assistance” provided was Jones revealing which other fighters may or may not be skirting the USADA system. Shortly after news of his reduced suspension broke, Jones was accused of snitching on his fellow fighters, by his fellow fighters.
In a new interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Jones addressed accusations of snitching.
“USADA asked me to do a lot of things throughout this case, but one thing I didn’t do is snitch on anybody in MMA,” said Jones. “I definitely didn’t give up any information on anyone in the sport, nor do I know of anybody who’s doing these things in the sport. I think the whole snitching thing is pretty silly. It’s interesting to watch people jump to conclusions about things they don’t know what they are talking about. And that’s all I want to say about that topic.”
Not so surprisingly, Daniel Cormier has led the charge in accusing Jones of snitching. He recently made the following post on Instagram:
When asked if it bothered him to be labeled a snitch by other fighters, Jones said, “It doesn’t bother me for a few reasons. I understand who I am in this sport. I understand that I’m always going to be somewhat of a controversial athlete in our sport. I understand that I’m going to be a guy that’s very fun to talk about whether it’s for the good or bad. I’m just grateful to be relevant at the end of the day. When you are one of the better athletes in the sport, people are going to talk about you.” He continued, “I feel like everyone is never minding all the science that went into all this and they are trying to chalk it up to some kind of rat situation, as if they are saying Jon was guilty but he ratted to get out of this, but that can’t be farther from the truth.”
Fabricio Werdum recently came out and said he turned down USADA’s offer for him to be a snitch.
Jones was suspended following UFC 214 and a drug test failure for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. The original suspension was for up to four years. By getting the suspension reduced to 15 months, Jones is eligible to fight by the end of the 2018.
