Jon Jones Fires Back at Islam Makhachev Over Doping Comments
Jon Jones answered Islam Makhachev on X after the UFC welterweight champion said Jones’s long unbeaten run should not count. The former two-division titleholder posted a point-by-point reply that mixed a defense of his USADA cases with a reminder of Makhachev’s only UFC loss.
Makhachev made the first move in a recent interview with Ushatayka. He called Jones one of the greatest athletes in history and then drew a line through the streak. “I’m not denying that Jon Jones is one of the greatest athletes in history,” Makhachev 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 treated that as an attack on the record he still claims. He opened by telling critics they cannot pick which USADA finding they like. “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,’” Jones wrote. “You can’t have it both ways.”
He then pointed at the scoreboards. “Last I checked, my hand got raised every time I was in the octagon since any of you can remember,” Jones wrote. That line is the heart of his argument. Jones is 28-1 with one no-contest. The official loss is a disqualification against Matt Hamill. The no-contest is the Daniel Cormier rematch at UFC 214 that was overturned after a failed test. Jones has not lost a decision or a finish inside the UFC cage since 2009.
The post turned personal after that. Jones invoked Makhachev’s late coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, and said the coach once called him “a gift from God.” He followed it with the lowest blow in the thread. “Let’s not forget you’ve been ko’d, flat lined, went night night,” Jones wrote.
That reference is real and old. Makhachev’s only UFC defeat came on October 3, 2015, when Adriano Martins knocked him out in the first round at UFC 192. Makhachev has not lost since. He is now 29-1 overall and 18-1 inside the UFC, with a promotion-record 17-fight winning streak after a unanimous decision over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 on August 15. He holds the welterweight title after moving up from lightweight and is widely ranked No. 1 pound-for-pound.
Jones did not stop at Makhachev. He aimed the fifth point at Cormier, the rival whose UFC 214 knockout was stripped. “DC I kicked you in the head LOL keep telling yourself it was steroids,” Jones wrote. He closed the same way he has closed other legacy fights on social media. “Whatever you need to tell yourselves to sleep better at night, go for it. Keep chasing, it’s lonely at the top, Islam hopefully I’ll see you up here one day.”
The timing matters because neither man is lining up the other in a cage. Jones last fought on November 16, 2024, when he stopped Stipe Miocic in the third round and kept the heavyweight title. He vacated that belt in June 2025. He later asked the UFC for his release after he was left off a White House card and has spent 2026 training prospects while leaving the door cracked on a return. Makhachev is targeting another title fight before Ramadan in early 2027. A Jones-Makhachev superfight remains talk, not a booking.
What this exchange does settle is how each man wants the history written. Makhachev’s 17 straight UFC wins is the clean official record. Jones’s 20-fight unbeaten run, interrupted by a no-contest, is the one he still sells as the standard. Makhachev says two failed tests reset the count. Jones says critics cannot quote USADA’s picogram and ignore the agency’s finding that the amount was not performance-enhancing or intentional.
Both positions are now on the record. Jones used the public reply to put Makhachev’s knockout loss and Cormier’s old grievance in the same post as his own testing history. Makhachev used an interview to say greatness and a valid streak are not the same thing. The next move belongs to whoever wants the last word, or to a matchmaker who can turn this argument into a fight. Until then, the former heavyweight champion has told the current welterweight champion that the top of the mountain is lonely, and that he still sees himself standing there.