Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was "very angry" when he learned that his employers sent him into the Octagon to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 152, even after "The Phenom" was flagged by a pre-fight drug test.
Read the initial report here.
When TSN host Michael Landsberg asked how -- or why -- the promotion could allow a jacked-up Brazilian to fight for the title, promotion president Dana White simply stalled, stammered, and ultimately threw the onus back on "Bones," who recently ran into drug testing trouble of his own.
Transcription below:
Landsberg: He said last week 'the UFC was very aware before the fight of Vitor Belfort's failed drug test before UFC 152, but they let him fight anyway.' How do you respond to that?
White: (long pause) ... Jones said that?
Landsberg: Yeah, he did.
White: (long pause) ... How would Jones know that?
Landsberg: I don't know, I guess the first question, is it true? Did you know beforehand Belfort was going to fail his test?
White: (long pause) ... No, we didn't know that. Was Jon Jones in our offices? Did Jon Jones ... Listen, Jon Jones is somebody who shouldn't be talking about other people's tests and what they're doing.
Landsberg: That's a good point!
UFC claims reports of a drug-testing cover up are "categorically false."
Jones was reinstated by UFC after legal trouble left him stripped of his title and suspended from mixed martial arts (MMA). While "Bones" is back in the fight business, he's been less than complimentary about how the promotion has treated him.
I could swear I've heard that somewhere before...