Jon Jones returned to action this past weekend at UFC 232, defeating Alexander Gustafsson by third round TKO to regain the UFC Light Heavyweight Title.
The newly crowned champion has had two past drug test failures and an abnormality heading into UFC 232, but retired boxing great Roy Jones Jr. says those issues won’t impact Jones’ legacy.
“Nothing will taint the true legacy of who Jon Jones is,” Jones Jr. Said backstage at UFC 232. “People always (ask), ‘You think the steroids taint their image?’ I don’t think it taints their image, because if steroids made that much difference, anybody could be that good if they just used steroids. Everybody that does it don’t be that good. Even in the fights (Jones) passed the tests on, he was still that good.”
Jones has failed two aforementioned drug tests in the past, with the first happening before UFC 200 and the other in line with UFC 214.
One thing Jones Jr. would argue is that if all the fighters took the same illegal substances Jones took, none of them would still be able to beat him.
“But that does not destroy or eliminate who Jon Jones really was,” Jones Jr. said. “I can guarantee you can get 90 percent of them that fight in his weight class and give it to them, and they won’t beat them. I don’t think that taints his legacy. I don’t like it. Nobody wants to see nobody do things that are illegal, but still, he had to be pretty good in order to get the name he got before that even showed up.”
