An undated photo of American MMA fighter Jon Jones. — X/@JonnyBones
Former UFC fighter Matt Brown comes out in support of former heavyweight champion Jon Jones, recognising his accomplishments despite the consumption of banned substances, international media reported on Wednesday.
Jones is regarded as one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time. He claimed titles in both the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions of the UFC and holds numerous records, including the most title fight wins in UFC history.
Jones’ career has also been surrounded by several controversies, including drug test failures, hit-and-run incidents, and legal issues.
However, former American Mixed Martial Artist (MMA) Brown believes he was the best in UFC despite controversies.
”He [Jones] was dominating everybody during the TRT era. Like the Vitor, at 2000 test levels, he did it during that era. Like we could we could say almost factually that he was fighting guys that were on steroids,” Brown said.
“So the fact that he did them, it’s just again, I think it’s just a personal opinion, like whether you want to take that into account or not in terms of accomplishments, I mean you can’t say that he wasn’t the best ever.
“I mean, it’s just a difficult argument to make anything else right? But when you start getting into like who did steroids and who didn’t, like it’s basically all opinion at that point.”
For a long time, Jon Jones was the centre of attention among fans and the UFC for his fight with former interim champion Tom Aspinall.
Jones and UFC were under immense pressure after continuous stress from fans, as the American, who has a record of 28-1 in the promotion, was not accepting the challenge of a unification bout from Aspinall.
However, on June 21, following a fight night event in Azerbaijan, UFC CEO Dana White announced that Jones has officially retired and Aspinall is the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, which ended the American’s era.