Daniel Cormier must get a pit in his stomach every time he hears the name Jon Jones. The only two losses of Cormier’s career have been to Jones, the most recent of which was a third-round knockout in the main event of UFC 214 in July.
Their rivalry has been stoked and prolonged by Jones’s repeated suspensions and it was announced Tuesday night that Jones failed yet another drug test. According to an initial report from TMZ, Jones tested positive for the anabolic androgenic steroid Turinabol.
Cormier, while on vacation with his family in Hawaii, released the following statement to members of the media when he heard the news.
“It’s hard to find words to describe how I’m feeling right now. I’m disappointed to hear the news. It’s very emotional. We as athletes are entitled to due process, and I will refrain from saying much more until I know exactly what happened. In my mind, on July 29, I competed and I lost. I thought Jon Jones was the better man that day. I don’t know what to think anymore. I can’t believe we are going through all of this again. We will see what happens next.”
Jones was suspended one year by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for failing a drug test in the days leading up to UFC 200 in July 2016. Jones tested positive for two estrogen blockers, which are sometimes used by an athlete that has done a cycle of anabolic steroids.
Following that suspension and in the lead-up to UFC 214, Cormier had accused Jones of being on steroids the first time they fought back in January 2015 even though Jones did not test positive for banned substances for that fight—he did, however, test positive for cocaine a month prior to the bout but since it didn’t happen during the in-competition window it was not technically a violation.
According to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Jones’s latest violation stemmed from a drug screening on July 28 following the UFC 214 weigh-ins. One week prior to that, Jones tweeted this…
Jones has yet to comment but his manager Malki Kawa released this statement after Tuesday’s new broke:
“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.”
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) August 23, 2017
UFC president Dana White described the latest turn of events as “brutal” and “unbelievable” as he addressed reporters at The Ultimate Fighter Gym in Las Vegas.
White also explained the promotion was looking into potentially booking Jones against heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in a Dec. 2 superfight at UFC 218 in Detroit.
If it’s proven that there was no mistake and Jones did in fact take the banned substance, the UFC’s VP of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky said the consequences for Jones could be severe considering his history.
“Jon is afforded due process rights and those will be carried out in the coming months,” Novitzky said. “Jon definitely has one penalty under the system, so the second penalty, if it were to come to that, basically doubles the amount of the first. So for a specified substance, which are your non-steroid substances, those would usually be a year the first time and it’s going to be two years for a second offence. The non-specified, which would be your harder substances—steroids, growth hormones, blood doping products—the first time would be two years, the second time would be potentially four years.”
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