Jon Jones’ Camp Reacts To UFC 214 Drug Test Failure

The UFC received some of the worst news possible when word came tonight that light heavyweight champion Jon Jones had reportedly tested positive for an anabolic steroid after his UFC 214 knockout of former champion Daniel Cormier on July 29.

The news was especially disturbing considering Jones obviously had an already disturbing history of legal and drug test troubles, and had only just come back from a one-year suspension for using a banned performance-enhancing drug prior to his scheduled main event against Cormier at UFC 200 in July 2016. There’s no need to list all of the many Jones’ extracurricular hiccups; those are well known enough by the vast majority of the MMA-informed public by now.

What does matter right now, however, is the fact that Jones’ MMA career is, at the best, on hiatus for several years and over for good at the worst. It rates as an absolutely huge blow for the company, who only just regained the services of one of their most popular – and dominant – draws ever, an unstoppable (inside the cage) pound-for-pound force who they had at least hoped would follow Conor McGregor as the promotion’s second-biggest draw in the wake of Ronda Rousey‘s seeming exile from the fight game.

The UFC released an official statement on the concerning matter tonight, and Jones’ camp soon followed. In a statement issued to MMA Fighting, Jones’ manager Malki Kawa (predictably) said they were at a loss for words, and were of course going to have the sample re-tested for another ‘source of contamination’:

“We are all at a complete loss for words right now. Jon, his trainers, his nutritionists and his entire camp have worked tirelessly and meticulously the past 12 months to avoid this exact situation. We are having the samples tested again to determine the validity or source of contamination. Jon is crushed by this news and we are doing whatever we can as a team, to support him.”

Jones and his team will not surprisingly exhaust all available options in order to skate by the alleged violation, but it would seem apparent that he’s just not going to find much of sympathy after failing for cocaine in 2015, clomiphene in 2016, and now Turinabol in 2017 for his long-awaited comeback. Jones, of course, blamed a male sexual performance enhancement pill for the clomiphene failure before UFC 200. That defense is only going to hold up so many times, and it didn’t even hold up the first time “Bones” tried it.

He looked as dominant as ever in finishing Cormier with a vicious third-round head kick and follow-up assault of ground and pound, and if he is proven to have been on performance-enhancing drugs, it’s a horrible look for a former champion to have been knocked by a legendary fighter who was on steroids.

Now, it seems like a foregone conclusion that he’s going to be stripped of the UFC light heavyweight title again, and even though Jones has shown an almost inhuman ability to come back from apparent doom, it’s going to be hard for even him – quite possibly the UFC’s most talented fighter ever – to bounce back from a blunder this big.