Outside Source
Jones (28-1) is widely considered the greatest fighter of all time by virtue of his light heavyweight title run, which saw the most title defenses in UFC history. However, Jones’ legacy is marred by multiple performance enhancing drug violations, threatening his GOAT status. Khabib Nurmagomedov’s coach, Javier Mendez, recently said he picks Khabib over Jones as the GOAT, as “Bones” was caught cheating.
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However, Sonnen believes the PED violations shouldn’t deprive Jones of GOAT status. According to Sonnen, Jones probably used PEDs like most others, but was caught for it. While Jones might not be the cleanest fighter, he is still the GOAT for his former foe, Sonnen.
Not the Cleanest
“I don’t know that Jon ever took anything that the rest of them didn’t take, but he got caught for it,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I’m going to have to go with no… Jon Jones failing a PED test makes him not the cleanest fighter of all time. It does not disqualify him from being the greatest fighter of all time.”
Sonnen suffered a first-round stoppage loss in a failed title bid against Jones in 2013. Jones went on to defend the title a record number of times before stepping away from competition in 2020. Jones returned after a three-year hiatus and won the heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane. “Bones” defended the title against Stipe Miocic and kept the division hanging for over a year before announcing his retirement last year. While Jones was rallying to return again at the White House, his plans have seemingly been jeopardized after news of his arthritic hip was leaked.
Chael Sonnen believes failing a PED test hurts Jon Jones’ “clean” image, but not his GOAT status
“I don’t know that Jon ever took anything that the rest of them didn’t take, but he got caught for it. I’m going to have to go with no. Jon Jones failing a PED test makes him not the… pic.twitter.com/XlmRT5Cqmq
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) February 10, 2026
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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