A picogram, and a five-year argument
Islam Makhachev lit the fuse on Sunday. He called Jon Jones’ UFC winning streak “invalid” and pointed straight at the American’s failed drug tests. It landed badly.
Jones waited until Tuesday, then answered on X at length. He did not stop at Makhachev either.
“Let’s kick off this week by clearing up the rumours spread by the people chasing me,” he wrote, before turning on Daniel Cormier. “DC, I kicked you in the head. Keep telling yourself it was the steroids. Tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night.”
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Jones puts USADA’s own words on the table
Then came the test. USADA found a trace amount of a substance in his sample and concluded it was neither performance-enhancing nor intentional, and that second half of the ruling is the part Jones wants repeated.
“If you believe USADA when it finds a picogram in my body, then you have to believe it when it says it wasn’t performance-enhancing and it wasn’t intentional. You can’t have it both ways,” he wrote.
His closing line was shorter. “Last time I checked, my hand got raised every time I stepped into the octagon.”
He has the ledger for it. 28-1 in MMA, 22-1 inside the UFC. Makhachev sits at 29-1 overall and 18-1 in the promotion. Two records with barely a blemish between them, and no agreement at all on what they are worth.
From praise in June to this
Back in June, Jones was still putting Makhachev on his own short list of the greatest fighters the sport has produced. The compliment was not returned this week.
“Jon, I’m not trying to take anything away from what you’ve achieved. But your whole life seems tied to breaking the rules one way or another, and somehow, you’re never the one left holding the bag.”
Neither man has ever faced the other. That has not stopped the argument over whose record means more.
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