Tim Kennedy says he could smell “booze” and “weed” on Jon Jones in training

Retired UFC veteran Tim Kennedy believes that Jon Jones recent lackluster performances are down to him partying too much.

Tim Kennedy is a former UFC fighter and one of the few fighters to simultaneously serve in the military, while also fighting professionally. He retired from MMA in 2017 after citing his lack of desire to continue competing professionally. Kennedy used to compete in the middleweight division, where he collected notable wins over fighters like Jason Miller, Zak Cummings, Trevor Prangley, Melvin Manhoef, Robbie Lawler, Roger Gracie, Michael Bisping among others.

He recently appeared on an episode of the Submission Radio, where he talked about the the light-heavyweight champions career and his experience in training with him:

“When he was like the hungry young lion and his personal life wasn’t bleeding over into his professional life, you saw a ferocious Mike Tyson-like thing, right?” Kennedy said about Jones. “Then success came along, and so did money, and fame, and bad decisions, and DUI’s, and bribes, and coke, and strippers, and with that, I’m not saying that correlation is causation, but you have definitely seen a decline in performance, or the really large exclamation mark on how a fight is viewed while those kind of life decisions are happening. So, the technique, the talent, the skill is still in that fighter of Jon Jones. For all contenders, I hope you all pray that his life is still a disaster, because if he gets his life in order, like, that dude’s gonna be unstoppable.”

Kennedy also reflected on his past training sessions with Jones, revealing that he could smell alcohol and marijuana on him:

“When he’s right, I hated training with him because he was so dominant,” Kennedy said. “And then when he was off, if he had a night when he went out, I could smell it. You know, you can smell booze, you can smell the weed. As an athlete, when you start sweating, all those things come out. And when I would smell that, I would be like, ‘Alright, today’s my day, let me get his back, or I’m gonna push the pace, or in the 4th, 5th minute of these rounds, he’s gonna deal with a more aggressive version.’ So, it was almost night and day in the gym.”

This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 13th March, 2020.