This Jon Jones USADA Rumor Has Everyone Shook

It appears that Jon Jones might just be able to slip out of another sad predicament, if an official from USADA is to be believed. The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion lost his title after he tested positive for turinabol metabolites following his UFC 214 battle with bitter rival Daniel “DC” Cormier.

Although Jones defeated Cormier via third-round technical knockout, the result was overturned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Now the Jones-Cormier rematch is ruled as a No Contest. Since Jones A-sample with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) came back positive, fans were looking for answers from his B-sample.

Unfortunately for Jones, the B-sample also turned out positive. But it was definitely mysterious as he had been fine leading up to the bout and during preparations. Jones’ team scrambled and chalked it up to another tainted supplement.

The second violation could warrant a harsher punishment

“Bones” had already been reprimanded for a prior infraction, when he tested positive again for the same substance after admitting being negligent in taking sexual enhancement pills.

A second negligence case definitely doesn’t look good in the eyes of USADA, and Jones could be facing up to a four year suspension. According to UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky however, this time all Jones has to do is to prove that he had taken the tainted supplement by accident. Quotes transcribed by BJPenn.com.

“He’s potentially looking at a second sanction, which would basically double your penalties. The substance that he tested positive for was a metabolite of an anabolic steroid.”

“Jon tested positive from a sample collection done weigh in day before the UFC event in Anaheim that was in July. Basically he was just coming off a one year suspension. The previous suspension went to arbitration. So you had three different independent arbitrators looking at it. All of them ruled that he did not purposely use anything to enhance his performance. But, they also ruled that he operated with careless and reckless disregard for what he took and ended up getting contaminated. So there was really no reduction in sanction and so he got a one year sanction from that previous one. Now unfortunately on this one, because of that previous sanction, he’s now looking at a second sanction which would basically double your penalty. The substance that he tested positive for was a metabolite of an anabolic steroid.”

Novitzky says Jones may not even be suspended at all

Novitzky continued saying there is a chance Jones could get out of this without a suspension. He continued his statement:

“That was a substance where a few years ago would only be detectable for a few days within the system. Now laboratories have found longtime metabolites tests, where metabolites can be detected four maybe up to six months after use. However, Jon [Jones] submitted clean tests on July 6 and July 7 of 2017. His positive test was from July 29. A simple Google search would show you that this substance, it’s detection window has now moved out from four to six months. So, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that anybody with any level of sophistication would choose to use this drug. It had to have been used after July 7, or entered his system after July 7. It would not make sense to go to this drug because of the multi-month detection window. So, that would leave me to believe that it was probably from non-purposeful ingestion.”

“So where we are at is that Jon’s team is working hard. We (the UFC) are assisting them wherever we can to try to determine how this substance got into his system. Sometimes that is not a quick process. It can take weeks, if not months of testing supplements and retracing your steps.

“Best case scenario is if he (Jones) can prove that this (substance) thing came from something that was not high risk.”

So what does everyone think? What happens to the Cormier situation if Jon Jones clears his name and proves his innocence? Will he get the title back? Or will Cormier and Jones battle for the UFC Light Heavyweight belt for a third time? Chime in.