Ahead of his return to the Octagon at UFC 309, Jon Jones is opening up an old wound.
While ‘Bones’ has been dominant throughout much of his career, he has faced his fair share of close calls and questionable decisions. Perhaps the closest of calls came at UFC 152 when he was tasked with defending his light heavyweight title against MMA icon Vitor Belfort.
Jones went into the contest as a massive 13-to-1 favorite, but disaster nearly struck in the opening round when Belfort locked in a nasty armbar up against the fence. Just when it looked like Jones’ title run would come to an end, he fought his way out of the hold and ultimately ended things in the fourth round by forcing Belfort to tap out via keylock less than a minute into the round.
ESPN MMA recently looked back in the iconic moment on Instagram via a meme that caught the attention of Jon Jones.
Responding the comments, Jones offered up one word.
“Steroids,” Jones wrote.
Jon Jones called belfort’s ‘sketchy drug test result’ ahead of UFC 152 a ‘Slap in the Face’
Belfort’s abuse of banned substances wasn’t much more a secret then than it is now, but ‘Bones’ found himself infuriated with his employer after learning years later that Belfort had a sketchy drug test result weeks before a fight. A report from Deadspin in September 2015 — three years after their meeting inside the Octagon — revealed that Belfort appeared to have elevated levels of testosterone.
The UFC never disclosed the result, and the fight moved forward as scheduled.
“Everybody has always speculated Vitor for being on steroids,” Jones told Ariel Helwani in November 2015. “But to know they put me in there with him knowing he was on them, it’s really a slap in the face” (h/t MMA Fighting).
Belfort was one of many fighters on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) until it was banned in February 2014 due to widespread abuse from UFC stars like Belfort and Chael Sonnen.
Jon Jones will return to the Octagon on November 16 when the promotion makes its annual pit stop inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
There, ‘Bones’ will put his undisputed heavyweight title on the line against former two-time titleholder and consensus heavyweight GOAT, Stipe Miocic.
