At the close of the Jon Jones USADA investigation, the independent arbitrator of the case concluded that there was no intentional use by Jon Jones, but the reason for the shortened suspension for Jon Jones who carried up to a four-year suspension for his second doping violation was attributed to the “substantial assistance.” Since this was made public, the “snitch” label has begun to follow Jones. In an appearance on “UFC Unfiltered,” Jon Jones clarified what was meant by the term “substantial assistance:”
“So the thing with the whole snitching situation, they ask you to assist if you know anything in sports that has anything to do with performance enhancing,” Jones began. “And I was grateful to be able to look them in the eyes and tell them, ‘no.’ I know nobody in our sport that does steroids. I really don’t. I have a lot of guys that I speculate, guys from other camps…I’ve got guys from my camp that I speculate. But there’s nobody in my camp that I know does steroids. And I answered that question honestly.
“I assisted them with a lot of things. Pretty much, I had to give them full access to my life and answer questions truly, and honestly, and under oath. USADA is totally did everything I had to do to get my job back, man.”
Jon Jones was then pressed specifically about the “snitching” label, and Jones responded with perplexity:
“The whole snitching thing is weird to me,” Jones said. “It’s like, I feel like snitching is considered snitching when you are telling on someone that you’re supposed to be loyal to. If you don’t know a motherfucker, then how am I a snitch? What are we, in prison now? What, snitching? What are we, in high school? What are y’all, mobsters?
“If I told, like, my managers’ or one of my teammate’s personal business, that’s snitching.”
What are your thoughts on these comments from Jon Jones?
