Marijuana is now only a banned substance for in-competition drug testing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for fighters within the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). With that in mind, longtime UFC commentating veteran Joe Rogan has now come forward with a new story concerning former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
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Joe Rogan is a long time advocate for cannabis use. Speaking on his podcast Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan and his longtime friend Ari Shaffir opened up about an experience smoking weed with the former UFC champion. Shaffir was the first to detail the experience.
“Early on Jon Jones, he wasn’t anything then – 4-0, maybe, something like that – meeting him, talking about s**t – and I can talk about this now because it’s no longer a banned substance in the UFC – talking about weed. And he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s smoke, bro.’ He wasn’t anything. He wasn’t anything, and just going like, ‘Who’s got weed?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, Rogan’s got it, but he’s in his hotel room,’ and texting you . . . ‘Hey, man, are you up?’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m kind of tired. I’m going to sleep.’
“It was like, ‘F**k, Jon, I think he doesn’t want us up there,’ and then be like, ‘No, no, let’s go. He’s got the weed. Let’s go.’ Because some fan gave it to us, right? You had this f**king tinfoil of weed, and just knocking on your door, and you’re like, ‘What?’ You were tired. And it was like, ‘Do you have that weed?’ . . . So you opened the door fully, looked at me and this young fighter and were like, ‘Come on in.’ And we all smoked pot in this hotel room in wherever it was. think Montreal, actually, and it was just a fun time, and then seeing this guy move on to become the baddest motherf**ker on the planet.”
Joe Rogan quickly joined in by adding that the experience may have led to Jon Jones moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Jackson-Wink MMA, which is Jones’ longtime training camp of choice.
“We also had a conversation with him about I was wanting him to go to a different camp. I was like, ‘You’re too good. You should be in a real camp.’ He was like, ‘You really think so?’ I was like, ‘I know so.’
“I go, ‘You only have a certain amount of time in this thing. Your time should be invested with a real coach who’s going to hone your skills. You could be an all-time great, man.’ I remember telling him that. He was like, ‘You really think so?’ I go, ‘I know so. You’ve really got to move on.’”
“I hope it helped. I mean, he might have done it anyway. Who knows? But I think it was a good conversation to have with a young guy. Like, ‘Listen man, you have real talent. You could really be something, but you’ve got to be coached by guys who are going to find out your tendencies.’
“He was so good, who knows how far – he might have been a world champion even with the camp that he was in. He was so good, and his wrestling is so powerful and he’s so physically talented, but it made a big difference, him to go to Jackson’s and be able to train on a regular basis with world-class fighters.”
Joe Rogan can be seen giving his full thoughts on the matter within the video provided above.
