Photo Credit: USATSI
The UFC 200 was going to be an event for the ages. With the rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, it looked to be a great fight. Two rivals duking it out to see who would be the light heavyweight champion of the world, until now. More than a year after having his title stripped from him, Jon Jones is back in trouble for doping allegations .
Jones’ title was originally stripped due to a hit-and-run accident that occurred in New Mexico. Jones escaped jail time but was sentenced to 18 months of probation. UFC President Dana White released a statement after the incident praising Jones and his fighting, “Obviously he’s very disappointed. He’s upset. He wanted to go down as one of the greats, or the greatest ever.”
However, today is a completely different story for the 28-year old. ESPN was the first to report that the UFC 200 rematch fight was cancelled due to doping allegations about Jones. Even though we are just finding out this information, his drug test reportedly came back negative on June 16th.
If Jones had won this fight, it could have been a great move for him and his career. It would have shown that he actually worked to get back to where he is, a fact that is untrue now. It is unclear if UFC will take any action to punish Jones. The league has released a statement, “The UFC organization 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. The 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 9th 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 has become the UFC 200 main event. Consistent with all previous potential anti-doping violations, additional information or UFC statements will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.
Ticket refunds are available upon request for anyone who purchased UFC 200 on pay-per-view.
