Well, so much for all of the talk of the UFC 200 card staying together.
After losing the originally intended headline bout between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, UFC put together the two next best things — Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier 2, a fight between the number one and two guys, both who have belts and are stars, as well as the long-awaited Octagon return of the former biggest draw in the sport, Brock Lesnar.
And then it happened.
On Wednesday evening UFC announced via their official website that former undisputed UFC 205-pound champion “Bones” Jones, who coincidentally enough just returned from a suspension following his highly publicized hit-and-run incident in New Mexico, has been flagged by USADA just over two days before he was set to headline what was expected to be among UFC’s biggest events of all-time.
With Jones being flagged for a potential violation, he has been effectively removed from the UFC 200 lineup. Due to the extremely short notice, it appears that UFC won’t bother with trying to scramble to find a replacement opponent to keep Cormier on the card. Additionally, they announced that the new official “main event” will be the Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt fight.
UFC.com issued the following statement regarding the Jones situation:
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.
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 9 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 will become the UFC 200 main event.
UFC 200 takes place on Saturday, July 9, 2016 from the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Join us here at MMANews.com this Saturday for live coverage of the UFC 200 event!