Jon Jones isn’t done getting his rear end tore up a new one by his fellow peers. The latest to take a dig at the former UFC light heavyweight champion is none other than former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate. Although Tate is deep into her retirement, she remains active in her voice in the mixed martial arts community. She is also a well-respected opinion and isn’t afraid to dole out the criticism if it’s warranted.
Jones, of course, failed both the A-sample and the B-sample of two USADA-administered drug tests. The results were made public after he had already stopped now reinstated UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in the third round with a head kick.
When an athlete under the USADA program fails an A-sample, he has the right to have his B-sample tested to make sure the results are accurate. The problem for Jones was, even his B-sample tested positive for Turinabol.
Miesha Tate isn’t happy
The first person to get really upset was understandably Daniel Cormier. The Nevada State Athletic Commission rightfully overturned the official result into a No Contest ruling. It’s as if the bout never happened and Cormier remains champion.
Tate, along with other big names in MMA, expressed her ire in a recent interview with MMA Tonight on Sirius XM.
“You’re either clean, or you’re not. There is no gray zone when it comes to full contact sports, period,” Tate told MMA Tonight on Sirius XM (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow). “I don’t care if USADA says, Miesha, don’t eat Cheerios the week of your fight. Guess what, I ain’t eating Cheerios. That’s the rules. They make it, so the sport is safe and clean, and we need to follow them.”
“You know the rules directly ahead of time,” Tate explained. “USADA hands out pamphlets, tons of information. They make it very very easy. If you have a question, if there’s anything that a doctor prescribes you, you have phone numbers, you have a website. You can run it through a number of people to verify if this is a safe product or not.”
Tate says Jon Jones has no excuse for his behavior
“I utilized this many times myself, just to be precautious,” she said. “I have a slight thyroid disorder. My thyroid runs a little bit slow. I took a natural pig hormone, but I wanted to make sure that it was safe, it was okay. It was cleared, and it was alright, but I went through the process to make sure that what I was putting into my body — I sent all my supplements to USADA to have them cleared, and they’re happy to do that. And that gives me the reassurance because I don’t want to accidentally take something.”
“But if you’re ‘accidentally’ speeding, and a police officer pulls you over, and said, ‘sorry sir, I was going 20 over, I didn’t realize,’ you’re still going 20 over, period. You can’t use ignorance as an excuse, and it needs to be 100% clean, not basically clean.”
