Jon Jones answered Islam Makhachev’s claim that his UFC win streak shouldn’t count, posting a five-point rebuttal on X that defended his anti-doping history and took shots at the welterweight champion and Daniel Cormier in the same breath.
Makhachev, speaking in Russian to Ushatayka, said Jones belongs in the greatest-of-all-time conversation but that the numbers behind his run don’t hold up. “I’m not denying that Jon Jones is one of the greatest athletes in history,” he said. “But he was caught doping twice, and I think that’s why his streak isn’t considered valid. Because he went into a fight while on PEDs and won. That’s where a new count should have started.”
Jones opened his reply by going after the standard being applied to him.
“Let’s start this week by dispelling rumors that have been spread by people chasing me,” Jones wrote. “If you believe USADA for finding a pico gram in my system, then you must believe USADA when they say ‘It was not found to be PERFORMANCE ENHANCING or INTENTIONAL’. You can’t have it both ways.”
From there he turned to Makhachev’s own record, noting that his hand was raised every time he stepped into the octagon and claiming a coach in the champion’s camp once called him “a gift from God.” He finished the thought with a reference to the one blemish on Makhachev’s ledger: “Let’s not forget you’ve been ko’d, flat lined, went night night.” Makhachev’s only professional defeat is a 2015 knockout loss to Adriano Martins.
Daniel Cormier Gets Dragged Back In
The post didn’t stop at Makhachev. Jones revisited the fight that started this whole argument, writing, “DC I kicked you in the head LOL keep telling yourself it was steroids.”
Jones knocked Cormier out at UFC 214 in July 2017, but the result was overturned to a no contest after he tested positive for a Turinabol metabolite. He had already been pulled from UFC 200 in 2016 after testing positive for clomiphene and letrozole, and he was flagged again ahead of UFC 232 in a case USADA ultimately treated as more complicated.
He signed off with a line aimed squarely at the current champion: “Keep chasing, it’s lonely at the top, Islam hopefully I’ll see you up here one day.”
Makhachev’s Own Testing File
The criticism arrives with a complication attached to the man making it. Makhachev tested positive for meldonium in April 2016, which cost him a booking against Drew Dober at UFC on FOX 19 a day before the event. USADA cleared him that July with a finding of no fault or negligence, and he returned to competition in September.
UFC senior vice president of anti-doping compliance Jeff Novitzky went further in May 2024, calling the result “one of the greatest, colossal mistakes in anti-doping” while handing Makhachev a jacket for 50 clean tests in the program.
The two résumés being argued over are closer than the noise suggests. Makhachev moved to 29-1 with his win over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 in August, reaching 17 straight UFC victories and breaking Anderson Silva’s record of 16. Jones sits at 28-1 and went 20 consecutive fights without a defeat dating back to December 2009, with the Cormier no contest the only break in the run.
Jones has been officially retired since vacating the heavyweight title in June 2025, though he remains in the UFC’s anti-doping testing pool. The division he walked away from is wide open again after Tom Aspinall vacated the heavyweight championship this week.
