Jon Jones has been sitting on the sidelines since UFC 214 in July of 2017 after testing positive for the steroid Turinabol a day before the fight. The whole thing was quite a mess: Jones had just beaten the brakes off Daniel Cormier to become the new champ. Jones was in the middle of a victory media blitz that included a back and forth with former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar when news of the drug test failure came in.
Jones was stripped (his third stripped title!), Cormier was given the belt back, and Jon’s camp has been busy ever since trying to take this latest catastrophe and minimize the amount of time Jones could be suspended.
Fast forward six months, and we are finally getting to see the beginnings of how long that would be with the California State Athletic Commission hearing into the Jones failure that just went down. The official verdict: A $205,000 dollar fine and the revoking of his CSAC license. What’s the revoking mean? That Jon is out for a year from the August date his failed drug test was revealed. After that year is up, Jones must come before the commission and reapply for his license, which CSAC head Andy Foster affirmed would not be approved until a pending USADA suspension has been served in full as well.
“I want to make it clear that I do not believe we should end Mr. Jones’ career,” Foster said. “But I do believe he should sit out for a while. He’s already sat out a good while. I guarantee he’s already missed a fight or two he could have made money on. I think we should revoke his license. That’s what my recommendation is. I don’t think Mr. Jones gets to be a professional mixed martial artist right now.”
“Let him deal with USADA, let him give their discipline, whatever that may be. When that’s completed, I’d be inclined to support Mr. Jones’ application to return to this commission to get his license back.”
The Jones team’s position was that they didn’t deny the presence of Turinabol but did deny Jon took it intentionally. As for evidence, they had nothing other than a lie detector test Jones took and passed on the subject, and the fact that Jones had passed the surrounding USADA drug tests. They were never able to find a supplement Jon used that tainted with Turinabol, and they had no real theory as to where exactly the Turinabol came from. But they contended that it just didn’t make any sense.
“Who’s stupid enough to do steroids not consistently leading up to a fight?” Jones said during the hearing. “I’ve never done steroids, but any person with common sense would know not to do steroids, one dose like a week before your fight. It makes no sense … you guys know this makes no freaking sense. Why would I do steroids a week before my fight?”
As for where the Turinabol came from?
“I’m just trying to imagine any scenario, maybe somebody that doesn’t like me possibly doing something to me,” Jones said. “Maybe a meal or a drink. Which can drive a person crazy, trying to think of that kind of stuff.”
Jones also brought up his failed USADA drug test for estrogen blockers, something he contended was the result of taking off brand ‘boner pills.’
“This situation with the male enhancement pill that just so happened to be tainted, in a way it was a weird blessing in disguise,” Jones said. “I was able to show that this was completely not intentional. You can call me many things, you can call me a little bit of a party boy or wild guy or knucklehead. But cheater is something that I will never ever admit to. Admit isn’t the word I want to use. I’d never say that I am because that’s just not who I am.”
After answering softball questions lobbed by his lawyer, CSAC commissioner Martha Shen-Urquidez tore into Jones on a variety of topics from how USADA ruled him ‘reckless’ and ‘highly responsible’ for the male enhancement pill incident to how Jones hadn’t included nearly a dozen supplements in his original paperwork to the commission. Another surprising moment came when she questioned Jones’ ignorance of USADA policies considering Jones had signed documents claiming he’d completed numerous USADA drug education courses. Jones was forced to admit his management had completed the courses and signed off on them for him. It was all a bad look that made Jones look less than truthful over the years right up to now.
“My situation is like, you hit somebody with your car, paid damn near a million dollars in a lawsuit, and it’s like I’m getting judged for all the stupid s**t I’ve done a long time ago,” Jones said. “In this scenario, if we’re to ignore all the dumb things that I’ve done in the past, it’s just like … it almost makes you feel like if you have a troubled past, you have no rights, whatever evidence you can or can’t come up with, you’re guilty.”
The longest the CSAC can go before allowing a revoked fighter to re-apply for a license is a year from the date of wrongdoing. All things considered, Jones got off pretty easy here. The CSAC could have suspended Jones for two or more years, but they chose to revoke instead and pass the buck onto USADA for any more serious sentencing. He’ll face that USADA arbitration at an undetermined date, and they could slap him with a suspension that lasts up to six or eight years. While athletic commissions have been notoriously wishy washy regarding hard sentences against athletes that humbly come before them asking for leniency, USADA is much more serious about solid evidence, something Jones doesn’t seem to have a lot of. And now he’s been caught out for faking his completion of USADA educational material. Not a good look, that.
That being said, Jones has had an unlikely ally in UFC-USADA liaison Jeff Novitzky, who has repeated the Jones camp line that negative random testing surrounding the failed scheduled test the day before his fight doesn’t add up. But all it takes is one slip up to get caught, one substance that has a trace of another substance. We’ll have to wait a bit longer and see where USADA stands on Jon’s case to see whether this GOAT of fighting (and screwing up) can get back to his UFC career or if he’s effectively retired.
