Jon Jones has received his ban for his failed drug test from UFC 200.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion has been formally suspended by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for one year. Jones tested positive for a banned substance the week of UFC 200 and was subsequently removed from his headline bout against Daniel Cormier.
The ban was the maximum penalty USADA could enforce for the positive test and is retroactive to July 6, meaning the earliest he will be able to return to the Octagon is July 2017.
Jones tested positive for two oestregen blockers – clomiphene, a banned anti-oestrogenic substance, and ‘traces of letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor, which works to prevent the synthesis of androgens such as testosterone into oestrogen’.
Jon Jones' manager uses date rape analogy to explain tainted supplement responsibility https://t.co/dVi3ryHxpB
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 20, 2016
He claimed he took a contaminated sexual performance pill which USADA confirmed was tainted. However, the arbitrators said “his degree of fault in fact verged on the reckless,” as MMAFighting report.
They determined that Jones didn’t do enough to determine whether or not what he was using was adhering to the UFC’s anti-doping policy and the WADA Code by taking the pill. Jones had only asked the teammate who provided him the pill whether or not it was effective from a sexual-performance standpoint.
The youngest ever UFC champion and arguably the greatest fighter to ever grace an Octagon is also staring down the barrel of a suspension and fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission over the failed drug test.
“On the evidence before the Panel, the Applicant is not a drug cheat. He did not know that the tablet he took contained prohibited substances or that those substances had the capacity to enhance sporting performance. However by his imprudent use of what he pungently referred to as a ‘dick pill’ he has not only lost a year of his career but an estimated nine million dollars. This outcome which he admits to be a wake-up call for him should serve as a warning to all others who participate in the same sport.”
The arbitrators also differentiated his case from that of fellow UFC fighters Tim Means and Yoel Romero who were only handed six month suspensions for their positive drug tests, which were found to be a result of consuming contaminated supplements. This is because in both their respective cases, the banned substance was not printed on the supplements warning label.
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