On Tuesday, the Nevada Athletic Commission granted Jon Jones a one-fight license to compete on March 2nd against Anthony Smith at UFC 235.
Jones, who appeared in person at the meeting, will be required to be drug tested a minimum of twice a month until he fights in March. He will then need to continue testing throughout all of 2019 if he seeks to fight in the state again.
Unlike the California State Athletic Commission, who was willing to pay for the costs of the additional testing for Jones, Nevada is making Jones pay for the testing.
Jones was represented by Maine drug doping attorney Paul Greene. In prior doping hearings, Jones had been represented by Howard Jacobs. The hearing included testimony from USADA which led to the commission opining if more should be done with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.
The commission made it known that this was not a “get out of jail free” card. Yet, there was still no resolution of the pathology of the drug. Green indicated that the substance remains in Jones’ system and while further testing may reveal turinabol but additional banned contents in Jones’ tests may result in the end of his MMA career.
Payout Perspective:
This is perhaps an anticlimactic end to the Jones’ controversy. One has to wonder at some point why Turinabol remains in his system and why it remains in his system. Jones has cut down his supplements from 14 to 4. The remaining 4 are certified according to Green. The one-fight license seems to just punt away the issue until another date. The enhanced drug testing does not seem to determine the real issue since they are just getting the result, but not the origin of the turinabol seems to be the answer they need. We will see how the commission deals with this in the future.
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