Joe Rogan gives his take on ‘atypical’ Jon Jones drug test result

Speaking on the latest episode of his Joe Rogan Experience podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan gave his take on the recent “atypical finding” found on a Jon Jones drug test.

From the sounds of it, he’s as confused as the rest of us. That being said, he’s compelled to believe that Jon Jones is innocent, and that the former light heavyweight champion has not ingested any banned substances of late.

UFC VP of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky has stated that this test finding is likely the result of Jones’ previous use of a banned substance — for which he’s already been punished — and Rogan is inclined to believe him.

“I don’t know what the f*ck is happening,” Joe Rogan said on the show. “I really don’t. But they seem very confident that you’re not dealing with someone who is taking a drug again. You’re dealing with the very same drug that he took ‘x’ amount of months ago, still in his system. The drug he’s already been punished for.

“I understand that people get mad,” Rogan continued. “But you don’t want to accuse someone of something they’re not really guilty of. He’s definitely guilty of taking it the first time. People are accusing him of being stupid and taking it again. I don’t think that’s true. I don’t know for a fact, but what I’m reading from actual experts leads me to believe that they’re making sense. But I would have to talk to someone who disagrees who knows more about it than me to really form an opinion. So my opinion is like ‘well, if I had to bet, I would say he probably didn’t do anything.”

In the wake of this recent drama, the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided not to license Jon Jones for his UFC 232 main event battle with Alexander Gustafsson. Rather than cancel this fight and keep the card in Las Vegas as originally planned, the UFC decided to move the entire card to Los Angeles, as the California Athletic Commission was willing to license the former champ.

While the fans who bought tickets to see this card in Las Vegas are understandably furious, Joe Rogan reminded that this move by the UFC is not completely unprecedented.

“This is what happened the very first UFC I ever did,” Rogan said. “The very first UFC I ever worked was in Dothan, Alabama. UFC 12. But it was supposed to be in New York state. They canceled it in New York state, they wouldn’t let them do it, and they switched the whole thing overnight down to Dothan, Alabama… It was weird. It was weird back then. But that’s the only time I’ve ever heard of something changing this close to — that was one day, this is one week. I’ve never heard of an event changing like this before.”

What do you think of these comments from Joe Rogan? What’s your take on the Jon Jones situation?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/26/2018.