Looks like Jon Jones wasn’t just blowing smoke when he recently told fans on Instagram that he could return to the Octagon “really soon” and that he was getting “lots of really good news” about his “USADA situation.”
Just what that situation is (in case you’ve been under a rock the past few months): Jones tested positive for “Hydroxy-Clomiphene” and “Letrozole metabolite,” a pair of drugs often associated with recovery from a steroid cycle, in an out-of-competition drug test administered in June ahead of his UFC 200 bout against Daniel Cormier. Jones was subsequently removed from the card and suspended temporarily while USADA conducted its investigation.
Now Dana White appears to be reaffirming Jones’ recent statements of “good news.” White appeared on an episode of the Jim Rome Show to talk about UFC 202, among other things. And one of those other things happened to be Jon Jones (transcript via MMA Fighting):
“I don’t even know if this is public. I didn’t know if I can talk about it,” White said. “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.”
And while this is good news and could mean a quick return to the UFC for Jones, White wasn’t willing to completely absolve the former light heavyweight champion of all blame:
“He didn’t get a bum wrap,” White explained. “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,” White noted.
Of course now the question’s are: Would he be ready to go for UFC 205? Will he fight Daniel Cormier next? Is Anthony Johnson still going to retire before he fights Jones? Stay tuned to find out.
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