When Jon Jones made the comment to MMAFighting.com over the weekend that he is “expecting to be back in the Octagon really soon,” the MMA community was left scratching their heads in confusion. On Tuesday, UFC President Dana White made some sense of the situation.
White appeared on “The Jim Rome Show” today (listen above) and revealed that Jones apparently did not take the drug that everyone thinks he took, which resulted in him testing positive for banned substances and being pulled from his scheduled UFC Light Heavyweight Title unification bout against Daniel Cormier in the main event of the historic UFC 200 pay-per-view in July.
While White didn’t get too deep into the specifics, as he even questioned if he should be talking about the subject publicly, he did mention that it appears whatever Jones took wasn’t the drug that fighters take when coming off of a steroid cycle, which was originally believed to be the case.
“Well, it’s coming back now that it looks like he did not take the supplement that everybody thought he took,” White told Jim Rome during his appearance on his radio program on Tuesday. “We’ll see how this thing plays out.”
White continued, “I don’t even know if this is public. I didn’t know if I can talk about it. Normally, I talk about anything, but when it comes to medical stuff, you can’t do it. It’s looking like Jon Jones did not take the drug everybody thought he took. It looks like it’s something else. I’ll let this thing play out and if that’s true and that’s what USADA and the Nevada State Athletic Commission say happened, it could look good for Jon Jones.”
Even with this newfound information, White insists that “Bones” Jones didn’t get a bum rap, as he pointed out the fact that the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion does still have a responsibility to disclose any supplements or medication he is using to USADA.
“He didn’t get a bum wrap,” said White. “He definitely didn’t get a bum wrap, but the substance that he was on, it was a pill that you take when you’re coming off of steroids. But this thing is apparently in other things. Jon took something else. Where he doesn’t come off clean is you have to tell USADA everything that you put in your body leading up to the fight and he did not.”
Jones tested positive for two banned substances in an out-of-competition drug test administered by USADA on June 16. The first of those two banned substances was clomiphene, which is listed as an anti-estrogenic substance on the banned list. The second was traces of letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor, which works to prevent the synthesis of androgens such as testosterone into estrogen.
When the news first came to light, Jones immediately claimed innocence, something that didn’t really change public perception among most who follow the sport, as it is quite common among fighters who have popped hot in the past to do exactly that and hope for the best as things play out through the commission, or in this case, USADA.
Jones would first take to social media to immediately get something out that let his fans know he did not purposely take anything illegal. He wrote the following tweet, claiming his innocence and asking his fans to believe in him.
“Don’t write me off just yet, I know in my heart that I’m not a cheater. I trust in the system to help me prove it.”
When one fan sent him a tweet that pointed out what he took is something used to cover up steroid use, Jones replied with the following comment:
“You’re absolutely right man, I learned that myself over the last week. But it doesn’t mean you actually took steroids.”
After a few more social media posts, Jones would quickly schedule a live, early morning press conference to try and clear the air, or at the very least, spread the word regarding the fact that he did not knowingly take any illegal or banned substances.
For those who never watched the press conference that would like to — with the benefit of hindsight — watch the presser now with the knowledge we learned this week, you can do so by clicking here to check out the full video archive.
Stay tuned to MMANews.com for the latest developments in the ongoing Jon Jones/USADA saga.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Dana White quotes from his appearance on “The Jim Rome Show.”
