Mike Winklejohn Accepts Some Responsibility For Jon Jones Troubles

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and former UFC Interim Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones is currently serving a one year suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) for a failed drug test prior to UFC 200. Jones has experienced plenty of issues outside of just the failed drug test, dating back years.

According to longtime coach Mike Winklejohn, he must accept some of the responsibility for Jones troubles.

“I think that, yeah, I think that probably I should have yelled at him more often, that type of thing,” he says on The MMA Hour. “It’s mostly that he’s made his own bed, there’s no doubt about it. But hopefully we keep talking to him, and I think he’s turned the corner. He knows, and I think he’s driven to better himself and get back to what’s important in life and not just having fun.”

Jones is currently serving the previous mentioned suspension from the NAC, something that Winklejohn admits has been tough for Jones,

“It’s tough, there’s no doubt about it,” Winkeljohn said. “There’s a lot of disappointing times that Jon’s had in the past, and that in some ways we’re all kind of responsible for, in that we haven’t given him the proper guidance. But this last one, really it was him just doing childish things. He wasn’t cheating, he wasn’t doing anything that way — I don’t know what the media did to propel it as such. But he’s just not being smart enough and I think they threw him under the bus because of his past problems. They’re looking at him saying, hey, you should have asked if this drug could have been tainted with anything.”

Jones was last seen at Submission Underground 2, where he was able to submit the legendary Dan Henderson in the main event of the show.