You may remember last year when Chael Sonnen said that the Jon Jones vs. Anthony "Rumble" Johnson fight at UFC 187 wasn't going to happen. As it turns out, there was an unbelievable reason for that, and Sonnen revealed the story this week.
Chael Sonnen appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience this week and unleashed an insane (and unsubstantiated) story about Jon Jones hiding under the ring to avoid a drug test last year.
"I wasn’t there but let’s tell the story,” Sonnen said. “USADA came in -- this is just ‘the story’ -- but it's from some of his teammates, UFC fighters that claim they were there -- and that doesn’t make it true. But all the disclaimers aside, let’s get down to the entertainment side of this. So USADA rolls into Jackson’s gym to do a (drug) test on Jon Jones, and there were only some coaches in there, and like five people. (Jones) can see them coming, where they parked they can see him coming, so they don’t know what to do with him so they hide him under the cage. Jon Jones hides under the cage. They tell (USADA) ‘Jon, we don’t know where he is.'"
According to Sonnen, Jones got a lot more than he bargained for, and ended up hanging out under the ring for up to one-third of an entire day. Sonnen noted that this was before UFC fighters were mandated to tell USADA where they were at all times.
“So anyways he hides under the ring, (USADA says) ‘Well where is he, this is his gym.’ (Jones' team) sa ‘How would I know where he is?’ So instead of leaving like they thought they would do, (USADA) took a seat. Well, there’s like eight hours left in the business day, they don’t ever leave. However long, a six or eight hour time frame, Jon’s under the cage the entire time. So people are coming and going, the whole thing. Finally they close the lights and lock the door and Jon can finally come out," Sonnen said.
Sonnen elaborated on his story and said that the United States Anti-Doping Agency found out about Jones' (ALLEGED) under-the-ring antics.
“USADA found out. They didn’t do this, (but) they wanted to get a warrant and go under that ring under the theory that at some point in that six to eight hour span he would have had to pee. They wanted to go under forensically and collect that urine. That’s how upset they were that they had been had. I realize that we’re saying all the nice [disclaimer] stuff -- that happened. They were coming after him after that. They don’t like when people say their test doesn’t work, and they don’t like being duped. They came after him," said Sonnen
See Also: Nothing Was The Same: The Mad Gauntlet That Led To Anderson Silva
Later, Sonnen would claim that the Jon Jones vs. Anthony "Rumble" Johnson at UFC 187 wouldn't happen. It didn't, due to Jon Jones' hit-and-run incident, but the alleged Jones-USADA story was the that led to Sonnen's assumption.
“Remember when I predicted Rumble versus Jones would not happen? That’s because I had that story and I knew USADA was looking for him. I knew they had boots on the ground in Albuquerque waiting for him to leave the club, to get him for anything. I was armed with that — that’s why I predicted that fight wouldn’t happen. I knew they were after him. And this is before we had to do the whereabouts like we do now. Back then it was just random and they were just waiting for the right time when they were gonna grab him.”
The accusations start at the 2:08:00 mark on the show, which you can see above
Please h/t Fightful.com if using a transcript of this story.
By Sean Ross Sapp -
