Chael Sonnen is looking back to his bout with Jon Jones and says he knew he was taking steroids.
Chael Sonnen is probably one of the biggest talkers in all of MMA. He is a former fighter who wrote the book on trash-talking back in his day. He could sell any fight and start a beef with any opponent. Now that he is retired from fighting, Sonnen uses his gift of gab as an analyst. He often is seen on YouTube talking about the hot topics in fighting, both MMA and boxing. This week the biggest news in the UFC is the return of Jon Jones. Sonnen has a first-hand experience with Jones and is spilling a little bit of the tea.
Sonnen and Jones faced off back in 2013 after a stint coaching on The Ultimate Fighter. The bout between the two took place in New Jersey at the Prudential Center. Jones won that fight and went on to defend his title three more times before being stripped due to a positive drug test. Much of Jones’ career over the past seven years has been tarnished in a way due to his repeated trouble with the law and with drug testing. Now Sonnen is revealing that he knew Jones was taking PEDs when they fought.
Chael Sonnen proclaims he could tell Jon Jones was using PEDs when they fought in 2013
Since his fighting career concluded, Sonnen has become much more open about the different ways he used to cheat the system. He has admitted to using PEDs in the past and other frowned-upon methods. Now he is opening up about knowing that Jones was doing the same back then. He was asked if he thought Jones was clean when they fought, and he answered on The MMA Hour.
“Heavens, no, no. Oh my god, Oh, Ariel, we know our own,” he said. “I had more juice than Tropicana and he pushed me around like a Mack truck. As soon as we locked up with each other, he’s pushing me backward before his big spinning elbow I remember thinking I know your secret because I got the same one. They tested but back then it was an IQ test, not a drug test. We didn’t have USADA. So they had to tell us when they would come and test.”
Sonnen is taking a look at Jones now as a person who has taken banned substances before. He believes that Jones at heavyweight is clean. Jones took three years away from the sport to bulk up for his heavyweight debut. He remained in the USADA testing pool the whole time and Sonnen thinks he is living up to his word.
“He fought OSP clean I can tell you that, I think he’s clean for this one. He’s making some pretty big claims that just generally a cheater wouldn’t make. So yeah, I mean, I personally think that he’s probably clean,” he said.
Jones will be facing Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight title on Saturday night at UFC 285.
