Chael
Sonnen believes Jon Jones’
drug testing failures don’t take away his GOAT status.
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