During a new interview with MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones opened up about the darkest year of his career and became quite candid about a number of topics, including the fact that he felt he was practically forced to knowingly fight a guy on steroids.
“Vitor Belfort was on steroids when I fought him,” Jones said at the 45:10 mark of the above video. “The UFC was very well aware, way before the fight. They did nothing to penalize him. They let the fight go on knowing that I was fighting a guy on steroids, which is a hazard to my life. What do you do?”
“At his age and where he’s at in his career, I remember at the weigh ins I looked at his abs, and I’m like, dude I’m several years younger than you and you look way tighter than me. And I knew I trained pretty hard for that camp.”
Jones also touched on how he plans to handle the situation with the UFC and possible legal action against the Nevada Athletic Commission for testing him for cocaine in 2014.
“I haven’t brought it up to them yet, but the fans know. The power of the UFC and this Athletic Commission, eventually something needs to be done about it. To know that they put me in there with him, knowing that he was on something, it’s really a slap to the face.”
According to Jones, fans should be aware of some of the “shenanigans” that the UFC pulls.
“I would like to be more of a company guy and do things right, but at the same time, I’ve been bent over quite a few times by them. It’s just like…it’s hard to see where I stand man. I just hope the fans are aware of some of the shenanigans they pull.”
