Jon Jones made an appearance on Dan LeBatard’s show on ESPN, following up on UFC 159 opponent Chael Sonnen’s appearance earlier this week. What resulted was Jones taking plenty of shots at Sonnen in a variety of ways, but perhaps most importantly explaining his earlier comments about Sonnen being a steroid abuser, stating that he’d heard through the grapevine and pointing to his earlier fights and TRT usage.
Here are some of the quotes from the appearance.
When asked how he feels about Saturday’s fight:
“You know, I feel ready to fight. I feel ready to beat this guy up. I’m just sick of him being tagged to my name to be honest with you. I feel like this fight has been over a year in the making and right now defeating Chael Sonnen is going to cancel out that whole situation and allow me to move forward in my career.”
LeBatard asked Jones if he likes Sonnen and Jones answered after a lengthy pause:
“I can’t say I like him, no. I don’t like him. You know when he’s not trying to be Hulk Hogan and saying all this disrespectful stuff and classless stuff. He can be a pretty civil person. So, I like…I have respect for who Chael is when he’s not at work.”
On what advantage Sonnen may have in the fight:
“His advantage in this fight is he’s really good at promoting. He’s a great talker. He is really good with words. But even that’s not legit. The quotes he uses have been recited over and over again and the interview, they’ve probably never heard the line, so they appreciate the originality. But they’re not original when you’ve been around him six weeks. He says the same thing all the time. It’s well rehearsed.”
Was Chael’s statement that he makes more than Jones and Anderson Silva accurate?
“Chael Sonnen has..he’s like a politician. He will say whatever he has to to get ahead of the game. And…what I’m trying to get at is Chael, he makes up these outlandish statements that aren’t true. And he’s convinced this whole group of individuals who call themselves Team Darkside to believe these things. But he does not make more than me. I’m not doing it for the money, but that’s 1000% not true.”
A few quotes on if Jon is “annoyed” by dealing with Sonnen at this point:
“It’s just played out.”
“I think he does drugs..I don’t know. I don’t know. He just seems crazy, he just keeps going with it.”
“I’m an actual winner. When you win your competition, there’s a certain amount of grace you need to carry.”
LeBatard asked Jones why he apologized for the steroid cheat comments:
“I had no evidence to prove that Chael Sonnen did steroids throughout his prime. You know? And I know a lot of guys, not personally, but I know a lot of guys are probably doing it. And I think it’s a shame. Especially for parents that have athletes. It ruins the code, the honor code. It ruins everything. It’s not right. It’s just not right. And I had a feeling through hearing stories throughout the grapevine that Chael is a guy who has secretly done steroids throughout his career. You look at some of his earlier fights and some fights he had extraordinary muscle tone and other fights he just didn’t. And I’d also heard that when you do steroids when you’re younger…in your early years, you don’t produce testosterone naturally. Which hints to Testosterone Replacement Therapy. So I came up with the conclusion that he had done steroids, made lots of money and he does it now to continue making lots of money. Which isn’t fair, it cheats the cycle of life, the circle of life. The next guy needs his turn to be great but…like if I did steroids now? I’d be a beast. And then I do steroids five years from now? I’d still be a beast. It’s not fair. I’m stealing all the glory. So I think it’s not fair. When you get old, you need to step aside and let the next kid that’s working his tail off be great.
So, to answer your question, I had no concrete evidence to prove that he had done steroids so I shouldn’t make that allegation. And, so I appologized.”
And, finally, Jones was asked if he thought Sonnen was on steroids for the first Silva fight:
“I can’t prove it…”
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