Daniel Cormier says it seems “messed up” that Jon Jones will be allowed to have turninabol metabolites in his system.
Jon Jones was allowed to compete at UFC 232 despite testing positive multiple times in recent months. According to USADA, he’s eligible to compete because the substance likely just stems from his old 2017 test failure that he was already sanctioned for.
Jones, who denies ever cheating, even noted repeatedly that these metabolites supposedly could be in his system for around seven years. Given how this situation played out, will all the positive tests for this substance not be considered as test failures moving forward? Is this now part of the deal when you fight against Jones?
This is the very question his former rival Daniel Cormier asks.
“Because he has this trace amount of whatever… going forward, will he be allowed to just always have this? That’s my question,” Cormier said at the MMA Hour. “Because if he was able to fight this weekend, why wouldn’t you be able to fight in six months if it’s the same stuff in his system?
“Is he always going to be allowed to have this? I don’t understand,” he said. “That’s one of my biggest wonders, if it’s okay for him to always kind of have this trace amount of stuff in his body.”
Cormier also brought up Jones’ former teammate in Frank Mir, who was suspended for two years for the same substance.
“What other people have, whatever that is, that turinabol stuff, it just stays. So can we go back now and say ‘Frank Mir, now you’re allowed to always have turinabol’?
“I don’t understand because I’m very uneducated about illegal substances,” he said. “Seems kind of messed up that he can have something. It’s messed up.”
Related: Bisping has ‘no sympathy’ for Jones: If he wasn’t cheating in the first place, it wouldn’t be there
By all accounts, if USADA can’t prove that Jones reingested turinabol, it seems like he won’t be sanctioned if the same metabolite shows up on future drug tests. How long will this be the case? There is still a very limited amount of studies and trials for this specific anabolic steroid, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.