On a long enough timeline, Jon Jones is gonna make a mess of something. And apparently that timeline doesn’t even need to be that long.
The current interim UFC Light Heavyweight Champion has reportedly failed a drug test, and as a result his planned main-event bout with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier has been removed from the card of this weekend’s gargantuan UFC 200 event in Las Vegas.
Jones was informed of a possible anti-doping violation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (the US version of ASADA, basically) stemming from an out-of-competition sample taken on June 16th. Jones does have the option to appeal the process, but any action would take longer than the 72-odd hours that remains between now and the beginning of UFC 200, and as such he now has no hope of being cleared to compete on the card.
Instead, the three-round heavyweight bout between a returning Brock Lesnar and Kiwi slugger Mark Hunt will serve as the card’s main event fight.
UFC boss Dana White retweeted a post made on the company’s official Twitter account confirming Lesnar vs Hunt to be the card’s main event, and the company issued a statement confirming Jones’ USADA notice a short time ago.
The main event for UFC 200 is Brock Lesnar vs Mark Hunt. pic.twitter.com/RQU5ZcBRl9
— #UFCFightWeek (@ufc) July 7, 2016
“The UFC organisation was notified tonight that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Jon Jones of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection on June 16, 2016.USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case. It is important to note that, under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full fair legal review process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed.However, because Jones was scheduled to compete against Daniel Cormier this coming Saturday, July 9 in Las Vegas, there is insufficient time for a full review before the scheduled bout and therefore the fight has been removed from the fight card. As a result, the three-round heavyweight bout between Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt will become the UFC 200 main event.”
Jones’ career has been plagued by controversy virtually for its entire duration, and this latest chapter now threatens to level the highly popular fighter with a 2-year suspension from the sport.
For his part, Daniel Cromier has stated that he is “really disappointed” with the situation.
UFC 200 is scheduled for this coming Sunday (Australian time).
Source: UFC.
Photo: Brandon Magnus, Zuffa LLC/Getty.
