Back on January 6th, news broke that Jon Jones had tested positive for cocaine metabolites and was entering a drug treatment facility. Then the rumors started swirling that Jones’ issues with cocaine had been going on for a long time. Deadspin’ Greg Howard (who profiled Jones) received a text that read “can’t believe it took this long for jon to pop on coke.” Now after Jon’s one day stint in rehab, Howard is back with more rumors and speculation.
“I think he has a problem,” someone close to Jones told me last week, adding that it was unlikely Jones would get real help. “He doesn’t have the right people around him.” (Jones’s manager, Malki Kawa, persistently comes up as the worst of his influences, which probably isn’t a surprise to anyone who’s ever had to deal with him.)
I’ve heard that Malki Kawa is kind of weird, but I was unaware he was ‘a bad influence.’ What’s more interesting, however, is this little nugget of info.
There are a lot of questions here, ranging from the absurd—did Jones really hide under the cage when a tester showed up at his gym unannounced, as the rumor has it?
As someone that tends to hope for the most hilarious outcome in MMA, I really want this to be true. It would easily top Wanderlei Silva running out of a side door of his gym when he was going to get tested. I guess when you’re 6’4″ with 8-foot long arms, it’s tough to squeeze into a locker to avoid the pee collector.