Can’t blame this one on Chinese cocaine.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color commentator, Joe Rogan, is “upset” that another Jon Jones fight has been tainted (pun definitely intended) after a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug test returned traces of Turinabol.
The same substance that cost “Bones” more than a year on the shelf.
While everyone who’s involved with the upcoming UFC 232 pay-per-view (PPV) event this Saturday night (Dec. 29, 2018) insists Jones did nothing wrong and is clean as a whistle, Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) wanted more time to investigate the matter.
UFC was like “Sorry, we got bills to pay” and took its traveling circus to California, where the commission was more than willing to rubber stamp Jones’ mixed martial arts (MMA) license for the new event location in Inglewood.
A decision that has Rogan scratching his head.
“What the (expletive) are you doing? You’re going to let him fight in California? Let him (expletive) fight in Nevada,” Rogan said on his official podcast (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “It’s stupid. It’s stupidity. In this case, it’s stupid. I’m upset. I just wanted this fight to take place without any bulls—t behind it. I just want it to be a great fight. It’s an amazing matchup.”
Jones is scheduled to rematch Alexander Gustafsson for the light heavyweight title inside The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., which reigning division champion, Daniel Cormier, will be forced to surrender on fight night while “DC” wraps up his career at heavyweight.
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t just do this in Nevada,” Rogan said. “I guess they’re on vacation or some (expletive). That’s crazy. Figure it out. Let’s make a phone call. Isn’t there one person? One person should say, ‘OK, is it, to the best of your knowledge, absolutely from the original test?’ ‘Yes sir, by all the science, we’ll submit the science, show you the science, tell you the number.’ ‘OK, let him fight.’”
NSAC is getting a tremendous amount of heat from critics who believe this latest drug test result is not an indication of cheating. What should a state athletic commission do? Who does Rogan want them to talk to? Jeff Novitzky, who is an employee of UFC, or a representative of USADA, who is also paid by UFC?
The boys and girls at NSAC want to do their own investigating and ask their own line of questions because that’s why they exist. And as awful as they’ve been in recent years (sample), this is one time they may have gotten it right.