The UFC 214 light heavyweight title bout between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier won’t go down as a win for ‘Bones’ after all.
With the recent news that Jon Jones’ B-sample from his UFC 214 drug test failure has come back positive for Turinabol as well, the rest of the regulatory dominos appear to be falling. MMA Fighting reports that the California State Athletic Commission has overturned Jones’ KO win over Daniel Cormier, for the light heavyweight title, to a ‘No Contest.’
That decision will likely eventually result in the UFC stripping Jones of his title, as the win was directly responsible for him gaining the belt. Whether or not it also means that the belt goes back to Daniel Cormier remains to be seen. It’s conceivable that the UFC may chose to simply vacate the title and have Cormier fight a new top contender to regain the belt.
Jones’ B-sample coming back positive is also almost certain to result in some sort of suspension, the length of which will likely be agreed upon via an arbitration process, similar to the one Jones went through for his UFC 200 drug test failure. Jones ended up with a 1-year suspension from that process, after testing positive for clomiphene, the result of ingesting tainted Cialis (a sexual enhancement drug).
Despite the potentially accidental nature of Jones’ PED use last time around, ‘Bones’ found mercy from USADA’s arbiters hard to come by. This being his second doping offense, it seems likely that his punishment will be that much more severe.