No explanation as to how the illegal substance came to be found in Jones’ system was provided.
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Jones, who has been an advocate for more stringent drug testing, adamantly denied taking a banned substance.
“I know in my heart I would never take anything that would enhance me in any way”, he said. “Being labeled as someone who would ever cheat, it hurts me more than anything I’ve ever been through in my career”. “I’m still to the day against performance enhancers”. To this day, I’m extremely against performance enhancers. The whole situation really sucks.
Kawa revealed that an appeal will be filed and added that USADA will analyze a B-sample Jones provided.
“I feel a little bad for (Cormier)”, Lesnar said.
USADA spokesman Ryan Madden confirmed the potential violation stemmed from an out-of-competition test on June 16.
“My management team is very aware that everything needs to be documented leading up to a fight”, Jones said. “It’s really unprofessional of anybody of this caliber when something like that happens”.
The UFC introduced a comprehensive anti-doping program in July 2015.
Ironically, Lesnar, who headlined the massive UFC 100 card back in 2009, will now headline UFC 200 in his return after almost five years away from fighting.
When White broke the news, Cormier was clearly upset but in the emotion of the moment, he even offered to face Jones regardless of the result from the drug test.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s unprofessional”, Lesnar said. I was definitely bummed out.
“I think this is a new beginning for me”.
“I’ve been in the business long enough – the entertainment industry, the fight game – the show still goes on”, Lesnar said. Cormier has only lost to Jones in his MMA career, and he is coming off a full training camp for what he thought would be the defining fight of his life. Jones originally won the title in 2011 and defended it eight consecutive times.
A few months later, Jones was suspended by the UFC and had his title stripped due to his involvement in a hit-and-run accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he lives and trains. He pleaded guilty to that charge but avoided jail time.
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Jones and Cormier were then expected to finally rematch at UFC 197 in April.
