Russian drug testing and the corruption orbiting it is well known at this point, but Guillermo Jones testing incident seemed to fly a bit under the radar before this became more of a hot topic. There have been several reports of fighters traveling to Russia and "mysteriously" testing positive after upsetting the apple cart. Or testing positive themselves in the process of robberies (Felix Sturm) Anyway, I've seen plenty of fighters given leeway for Russian related doping incidents (Even fighters more obscure than Jones, such as Olanrewaju Durodola) but never Jones himself. Oddly enough his particular scandal seemed to absolutely enrage the boxing community. Jones was, and as far as I know, is still vilified. Maybe because of the visceral and brutal nature of the actual fight, and Lebedev being a pretty popular fighter. Just crossed my mind while watching some footage, I've never heard anyone advocate for the guy, even though that incident more or less ended his career, especially at his given age. A bitter pill for him to have to swallow if there was some kind of bull**** involved, though why the Russian's would bother setting up a second fight only to cancel it is odd (Maybe they were trying to save face while not having to rematch, simply sparing Lebedev another grueling fight to increase his longevity, I have no idea. He could have very well simply cheated and been pinched 2x.
Kind of reminds me some of the discussion regarding Margarito's potential cheating against Cotto. "Look at the damage he inflicted" as being proof of said cheating. Well, thing is, Jones had a history of awful, damaging beatings. What he did to Firat Arslan, one of the toughest guys in the past 20 years at cruiser weight, was almost as bad as how Lebedev got it, similar to how Margarito was damaging guys for years prior to Cotto as well.
I disagree on the Margarito comparison. Margarito is a proven cheat, we all know this. His power magically disppeared once his wraps were taken away. He went from the baddest man in the planet to a feather fisted punching bag all right after they caught him cheating. Meanwhile, Jones was a 40 year old, fat, unmotivated champion. He has handed out beatings like that before and was fighting in Lebby's hometown in-front of 10's of thousands die hard Russian fans. There's no doubt in my mind that the Russians slipped something in Guillermo's drink, no way were they gonna allow a dark skinned foreigner to humiliate their champ like the way he did. If Jones took any kind of drug, it was only to cut weight since he was such a fat, grotesque mess due too the inactivity. I'm sure right now, with a full training camp, a 44 year old Guillermo Jones hands Lebby another beating.
Well, I didn't really say Margarito was a proven cheat, one way or another, lol. I do find there to be interesting regardless. Sometimes when you're trying to make sense of something you try to find potential threads. My main concern with the vilification of Guillermo Jones is that he's a legitimate top 10 cruiser weight, of all time, if take his wins at face value, especially given his advanced and deteriorated state during his best win. Basically, on one hand I could have caught a great fighter fighting live, as I did with the epic Lebedev fight. The other, he is, and was a cheater and his entire career is basically invalidated.
I thought they cancelled the rematch because he tested positive again for the same diuretic he was caught using in the first fight. There were doubts over the initial failed test which is why the WBA reinstated Jones' title making him champion in recess and ordering a rematch between Jones and Ledbedev. But then he failed the 2nd test prior to the rematch which was tested at a neutral lab. The fact he failed a 2nd test for the same substance combined with the fact he hasn't gotten close to cruiser without the use of a diuretic since suggests he was cheating. It would have been very naive of Jones to be screwed over twice with the same methods if there was something dodgy going on from the Russians.
There's a thing about Guillermo's case though. After the first time in Russia he didn't want the B-sample tested, a thing that went on for months and got him stripped but the fight not even overturned, while everyone watching it wondered how the F could he have made the weight?! Second time he got tested by a Swiss lab instead of a Russian one, on their own request and the lab they themselves wanted and failed the test on the same stuff (forusemide) before the fight even had happened. Then there's the thing that the Russian test was the second time he was caught on Forusemide, so 3 times in total. Everybody with eyes could see that this guy could never make his weights in a legal way. And the deal he later made with the WBA is that he would resume his career at Heavyweight so he wouldn't have to weight cheat anymore.
Jones was undoubtedly a large cruiser weight, but he's hardly the only guy who's shrunk themselves down artificially to make 200. Seems he was just a more incompetent weight cutter than most (Getting pinched for dehydration agents.) Thing is, what other cruiser weights have ever boiled down to have such a supposed extent to gain such a large advantage? You normally don't see extreme size difference at cruiser weight, no?
In Jones' case it wasn't about incompetence boiling down. It was about never being able to make the weight in a legal way. A number of people watching the Lebedev fight commented the same sentiment in the RbR. How on earth did he make the weight?!
I think he could of made weight legally had he been dedicated enough, I mean the guy used to somehow be a welterweight. Problem Jones had was after all the years of killing himself to make stupidly low weights, he could no longer put himself through such an ordeal and became lazier and lazier. He ate his way up the divisions and his bad habits eventually saw him forced to use diuretics to make cruiserweight. He was about 18-20% bodyfat when he fought Lebedev, he could of made weight had he simply shed the extra fat but was too lazy or ill disciplined to do so. Look at him at heavyweight now, with a huge paunch, he looked 8 months pregnant in his last fight. He could probably still make cruiser if he put in the hard work to do so, he just doesn't have it in him to get down to an appropriate weight.
As others staTed he definitely used I don't believe any of that doping scandal crap about tampering with other guys samples
jones is a cheat. rarely bothered defending his belt. the guy was, is, always will be, a total disgrace.
