UFC President Dana White addressed Jon Jones’ short, 24-hour rehab stint during an appearance on “The Jim Rome Show” on Wednesday.
Jones, who tested positive for cocaine on December 4th, 30 days before his UFC 182 title bout with Daniel Cormier, checked himself into rehab shortly after the news became public, only to check himself back out 24 hours later.
“Everybody was talking about, ‘Oh, he really didn’t go to rehab.’ He went for a 24-hour evaluation into rehab,” said White. “They evaluated him for 24 hours. When the 24 hours was up they said, ‘You are not an addict.’ OK? But my thing was if you’re doing that four weeks before the biggest fight of your life there’s some type of problem there. There’s something wrong.”
White continued, “He’s doing out-patient counseling now. He’s talking to counselors. I just want to make sure …this kid has so much talent. It’s always the guys with tons of talent that you go, ‘Why is this guy doing this?’ I want to try to help the guy.”
White went on to explain that Jones was told he didn’t need to stay in in-patient rehab and sharing his belief that the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is finally maturing as an adult.
“They said he didn’t need to stay there. If they would have determined that he needed to stay he would have stayed,” said White.
White concluded, “It is what it is. I think the kid is growing up and maturing. He is as a fighter, for sure. We’ll see what happens.”
As noted on Wednesday, White indicated that Jones’ next title defense will be against the new number one contender in the 205-pound division, Anthony Johnson, likely in Las Vegas, Nevada in May.
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