Jones’ teammate calls test a set up

When it was announced that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones had an anti-doping test flagged, the condemnation was very nearly universal. However, Jackson-Wink teammate Frank Lester had a markedly different reaction.

“I was just at dinner sitting next to Jon Jones when he got the phone call about this failed drug test,” wrote Lester on his social network. “Supposedly the story is between weigh-ins and fight night he took an oral steroid. Which makes zero sense since it wouldn’t do anything at all for Jon to do so. It takes weeks for steroids to build up in your system to be a performance enhancer.

“Jon was devastated, to say the least. This is a set up, straight up, no athlete would test clean his entire fight camp, and then randomly take some cheap f***ing oral steroid betweens weigh ins and fight night knowing he would be tested once he got done fighting. This is a straight set up. They are trying to ruin this kid’s life. It makes no sense and Jon wouldn’t do it.

“Let’s see what happens with all of this but I truly believe Jon is innocent and I hope that all of you will give him a fair chance before you send hateful judgments his way.”

Lester was a cast member onThe Ultimate Fighter season 9 and helps run the amateur program at Jackson-Wink. He did not make clear who he thought was setting Jones up. It’s not the UFC; they have potentially lost one of their biggest PPV view stars, and as an organization, do not hate making money. It’s not USADA; flat Earth advocates would think that’s silly. Without some indication of who might reasonably have set Jones up, the argument is not compelling.

Lester’s argument that it was a cheap PED, with the implication that Jones would have used something more sophisticated, is belied by the fact that Oral Turinablol was the primary ingredient in the cocktail (it was literally a cocktail, washed down with scotch) that kept the Russian track and weight lifting teams out of the Rio Olympics.

As for the arguments about the timing of the test failure, the counter argument would be that Jones was using PEDs all along, but successively masking them, and the masking process failed during his weight cut.

And the implication that Jones knew he would be tested at fight time and thus wouldn’t have taken PEDs at that time can be answered by his history – Jon Jones regularly engages in behavior so reckless that his career is jeopardized. When an ordinary athlete has a test flagged, there is a presumption of innocence, and a number of athletes have been found innocent of any wrong doing what so ever. Unfortunately, Jones is no ordinary athlete; given his history, presuming innocence presents a major challenge.