Despite a recent high-profile drug-test failure, Jon Jones is optimistic he’ll be back in the UFC octagon “really soon.”
The UFC interim heavyweight champion is No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light-heavyweight rankings, and he’s No. 2 pound-for-pound behind flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.
However, after a history of out-of-the-cage troubles prompted UFC officials to strip him of the division’s primary belt, Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) defeated Ovince Saint Preux in April to set up a title-unification bout with reigning champ Daniel Cormier (17-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC). However, just three days before the event, USADA, the UFC’s drug-testing partner, notified Jones of a potential anti-doping violation – due to the anti-estrogen drugs clomiphene and letrozole – and “Bones” was pulled from the card:
Jones is currently under temporary suspension from USADA and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Today, though, he suggested in a private Instagram video that he doesn’t expect a full two-year ban (video via Twitter):
While thanking his supporters (“If there are any of you guys still out there,” he said), he suggested some “good news” about his potential return.
“I’ve been doing really good – been training, spending time with family, attacking some of these legal issues that I’ve gotten myself into,” he said. “(I’m) really trying to just leave that all behind once and for all.
“I’m sure you guys are curious about what’s going on with this USADA situation. Obviously I can’t get into it because it’s still pending, but what I can say is that we have found out lots of really good news, and I am expecting to be back in the octagon really soon.”
USADA and the NSAC haven’t had any recent updates on Jones’ situation, though other fighters have received shortened suspensions when arguing their failed tests were the result of tainted supplements.
“Without saying too much more, I feel like by the time this is all said and done, it will be all right,” Jones’ rep, Malki Kawa, said this past month during Jones’ first press conference after the failed test. “It could be (a supplement issue). I don’t want to say much more than that because I want to go through all the reasonable steps. But it could be.”
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