Chael Sonnen understands why Daniel Cormier refuses to include Jon Jones on his MMA Mount Rushmore.
Cormier said due to Jones’ history with failed drug tests, he can’t be considered one of the top four greatest fighters of all time. Jones tested positive for a turinabol metabolite after knocking out Cormier in their rematch at UFC 214, resulting in Jones’ win being overturned to a no contest.
Sonnen, who openly admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs during his octagon tenure, gave his theory on Jones’ reasoning for allegedly knowingly taking PEDs – despite the constant denials from the former two-division UFC champion.
“Everybody goes down that road where they cheat the rules because they somewhere had an insecurity,” Sonnen said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “They somewhere wanted an edge and then they come back, go, ‘But I could have done it anyway.’ Well, maybe you didn’t think you could. If you thought you could, you would have not put a synthetic chemical substance into your ass.
“It’s just one of those things, and Jon really gets upset about that. He doesn’t deny the hit-and-runs. He doesn’t deny the cocaine allegations. That’s the one that bothers him, the picogram and the couple of failed tests. That’s a very common thing with athletes. I do believe Jon could have been champ of the world without steroids, but somewhere within him, at some point, he doubted that, and that’s the life he chose.”
Prior to rematching Cormier, Jones tested positive for estrogen blockers clomiphene and letrozole after he defeated Ovince Saint Preux in 2016, resulting in him being stripped of his UFC light heavyweight title. In both instances, an independent arbitrator determined that Jones did not knowingly cheat.
