Jon Jones Dropped from UFC 200 After Testing Positive for Banned Substance

Jon “Bones” Jones was dropped from the UFC 200 card after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) notified Jones of a potential anti-doping violation on July 6, 2016. The drug violation arose from a sample collected on June 16, 2016. Jones was scheduled to fight for the UFC light heavyweight championship against Daniel Cormier as the main event for UFC 200: Jones vs. Cormier on July 9, 2016. 

A lot of people must be regretting the UFC's decision to hire the famed anti-doping cop Jeff Novitzky to oversee the UFC Anti-Doping Policy which appointed USADA as the program's independent administrator for results management. UFC President Dana White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta will never admit it now but they certainly must be reeling to see USADA's anti-doping efforts hurt the bottom line for UFC. It's a matter of dollars and cents and USADA is bad for business.

Publicly, White continues to praise UFC's anti-doping program as the best in the world.

"This is the way it should be. We have the best program in all of sports. It's the way it should be," White said. "Obviously, I was at dinner when I got the call and I literally like 'Jesus Christ, I must have jinxed myself' cause I kept going 'everything is going so smooth' and nobody had been hurt. Everybody was healthy so this was a pretty brutal phone call.

"These types of things are going to happen and it could have been a lot worse."

If the “B” sample confirms the results of the “A” sample, Jones faces a two-year suspension from the UFC for a first-time violation under the new UFC Anti-Doping Policy. That will undoubtedly represents millions of dollars in lost revenue for both Jones and the UFC.

The performance-enhancing drug (PED) responsible for Jones' anti-doping violation remains a mystery. The possibility of anabolic steroids has not been ruled out. Jones refused to identify the specific substance citing his inability to pronounce the name of it as the reason. 

Jones tearfully apologized to his fans, to Cormier and to the UFC for the fiasco caused by the potential anti-doping violation. Yet, at the same time Jones refused to admit knowingly using any type of prohibited PED. Jones had no explanation. The best he could offer was the suggestion that the positive test was the result of a contaminated supplement.

"I want to apologize, I really don't know what to say," Jones said. "I'm really sorry about this happening."

"The whole situation really sucks," Jones said. "It really sucks, really hurts a lot. They supposedly found something in one of my samples that I have no clue what it is. I don't even know how to pronounce it. I've been taking the same supplements for the majority of my career. I've been so outspoken about being against any type of performance enhancers. I'm still to this day extremely against performance enhancers. The whole thing sucks. Being labeled as someone who would cheat hurts me more than anything else I've ever been through in my career."

This is the first time that Jones has tested positive for a PED. Jones tested positive for traces of cocaine in the month prior to his last fight against Cormier at UFC 182 in 2015. But under the old UFC anti-doping policy, Jones was not penalized because the violation occurred outside of competition.

A two-year suspension seems likely at this point. Jones promised to make a comeback after he serves a two-year ban if it should come to that.

"If I do have to sit out two years, I will definitely be back," Jones said. "I'm already thinking about the good that can happen. I'm optimistic. But man, at the end of the day, I'm a fighter. I'm a fighter. Even though I may seem broken up here, I'm not broken. I'm just really upset.

"For all of the people who believed in me, continue to believe in me, because this story isn't over and the best is yet to come."

Source:

Martin, D. (July 7, 2016). Jon Jones proclaims his innocence, will appeal doping violation. Retrieved from http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/jon-jones-ufc-proclaims-his-innocence-will-appeal-doping-violation-070716