Add John McCarthy to the list of people who believe Jon Jones didn’t knowingly take a steroid prior to UFC 214.

McCarthy thinks Jones’ problem lies not with banned substances, but with unregulated supplements.

“When you’re an athlete making the amount of money that Jon is making, you can’t go to the AM-PM and buy something that’s in pill form and put that in your mouth without going, ‘What the (expletive) are you doing?’ C’mon, dude,” the veteran MMA official and Bellator commentator told MMAjunkie Radio. “You are a frickin’ Ferrari. You can’t do those things. You have got to be smart. And I just don’t see the letting him off with, ‘Oh, it was just a mistake,’ because he’s had that mistake before.”

Jones (23-1 MMA, 17-1 UFC) was not let off the hook this past month when he went before the California State Athletic Commission, which regulated UFC 214 and overturned his knockout win over Daniel Cormier (19-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC). The ex-champ was hit with a license revocation and won’t be able to apply for another license in California until a separate case with UFC anti-doping partner USADA is resolved. He was also fined $205,000.

Jones testified to the commission that he and his team – comprised of a manager and the wife of his jiu-jitsu coach – had strict control over his diet and supplementation. He claimed the supplements he took were “USADA- approved,” even though the anti-doping agency does no such thing for UFC fighters. He also pointed to a polygraph test he said he passed.

Anti-doping attorney Howard Jacobs indicated the amount found in his system pointed to a tainted supplement. He noted Jones’ team sent 15 supplements to a WADA-accredited lab in an effort to find oral turinabol, the banned substance found in Jones’ urine one day prior to the July 29 pay-per-view event. But in the end, the ex-champ did not dispute the findings of the failed drug test.

McCarthy has refereed several Jones fights, though their relationship hasn’t always been positive. Prior to an ill-fated title unifier at UFC 200, then-interim champ Jones tried to have McCarthy removed as a potential referee, later explaining he didn’t agree with the referee’s “energy.” McCarthy was nevertheless assigned to the fight, which was later canceled when Jones failed an out-of-competition drug test.

Despite their past, McCarthy had only effusive praise for Jones’ skills inside the cage. But like many who’ve observed the once-dominant champ’s career, that praise was mixed with disappointment over Jones’ repeated issues outside the cage.

John McCarthy

“I love Jon Jones,” McCarthy said. “I say he’s the greatest MMA fighter I’ve ever seen. But this is where the problem comes forward. I don’t personally believe Jon took some type of steroid before fighting Daniel Cormier. … But Jon is personally responsible as a professional athlete under contract with the UFC … with everything he puts in his body. And I believe that Jon is taking – or allowing things that are not known or not tested – and because some other trace element is in there that makes you pop, you’re responsible for it.

“When he took the lie-detector test, I believe that Jon didn’t knowingly take a pill or take a shot or injection for that steroid, but I do believe he’s taking things, or allowing himself to ingest things that, for whatever reason, that sometimes contain these things, because he’s taking them from places that there is no quality assurance.”

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