Jon Jones – “That BS no contest over DC needs to be taken off my record”
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has always been vocal of the U.S. Anti-Doping Association (USADA) and how their findings have impacted his career.
In the wake of the announcement that USADA will no longer continue to serve the UFC in the coming new year, Jones has released a statement.
“Man I survived USADA. First they said I was guilty of having picograms, then they considered me innocent, next picograms became legal. Guess what I’m still here, still unbeaten. That BS no contest over DC needs to be taken off my record. I’ve never cheated this sport and I will stand by that until the Day I die. 🐐”
Man I survived USADA. First they said I was guilty of having picograms, then they considered me innocent, next picograms became legal. Guess what I’m still here, still unbeaten. That BS no contest over DC needs to be taken off my record. I’ve never cheated this sport and I will…
— BONY (@JonnyBones) October 12, 2023
Jones was removed from a light heavyweight championship unification bout against Daniel Cormier in 2016. That was to serve as the main event of UFC 200 on July 9, 2016, after testing positive for clomiphene and letrozole, banned substances classified by the World Anti-Doping Agency as “hormone and metabolic modulators.”
USADA then ruled that Jones would receive a one-year suspension for the failed test, but acknowledged Jones’ claim that the result was due to an off-brand sex pill that the USADA was able to independently confirm for contamination.
Jones later defeated Cormier at UFC 214 but the ruling was overturned to a no-contest when Jones’ pre-fight drug test samples came in positive for the anabolic steroid turinabol. Jones received a 15-month suspension, which was considerably reduced from a maximum of four years due to the fighter providing USADA with “substantial assistance” and the agency once again determining that Jones did not knowingly take a banned substance.
Then in December 2018, the picogram saga. A trace amount of the steroid was discovered in Jones’ system and he was ineligible to fight in Las Vegas. The card was moved to California and the rest is history.
The only blemishes on Jones’ record are the no-contest against Cormier, and then a 2009 disqualification against Matt Hamill for an illegal strike.
