Greg Howard on Jon Jones: 'This doesn't come out of nowhere'

In the days before UFC 182, many reporters from various media outlets released some very entertaining profiles on the main event competitors, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. One man who wrote an excellent piece on Jones was Deadspin's Greg Howard. He discussed many aspects of Jones' life in and out of the cage, and believed that Jones is the best fighter we've ever seen. In response to today's news that Jones failed a drug test for cocaine metabolites in December and has voluntarily entered rehab, Howard posted a new article offering his take on the whole situation and the rumors that surrounded Jones' cocaine use:

This doesn't come out of nowhere. In reporting this story, I heard a lot of rumors about Jones's cocaine use, some of which went past what you'd expect of a rich young celebrity in 2014. I left those alone partly because it's a long way from rumor to solid fact and partly because, as evidenced by his success, whatever he's been up to late at night hasn't hurt his athletic performance much. This is worth noting just by way of saying that this is more likely than not something that actually could affect his career, as opposed to the result of one night's bad decision. Just a few minutes ago, I got this text from a source close to Jones: Can't believe it took this long for jon to pop on coke.

Jones defeated Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 182, days after the drug test results came back. Due to cocaine metabolites not being banned "out of competition" by WADA, Jones was allowed to compete and will not be fined or suspended by the Nevada State Athletic commission.