Jon Jones opens up on USADA suspension, being pulled from UFC 200
Jon Jones has had a rough road this year after getting stripped of his undisputed light heavyweight title and pulled from the main event of UFC 200 against Daniel Cormier.
Jon Jones was scheduled to defend his then-undisputed 205-pound strap against Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson in the main event of UFC 187 in May of last year, but after a hit-and-run accident left a pregnant woman’s arm broken, he was stripped of his title and suspended from the UFC indefinitely.
This would open the door for Jones’ rival Daniel Cormier to step in against ‘Rumble’ and win the vacant title with a third round submission victory.
After a successful title defense against Alexander Gustafsson in October, Cormier would be matched-up with Jones to defend his title in the main event of UFC 197, however, Cormier would be forced out of the bout and Jones would defeat late replacement Ovince Saint Preux in the main event for the interim title instead. After Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz’s scheduled UFC 200 rematch was trashed, the UFC booked Jones vs. Cormier II to main event the monumental fight card instead.
All seemed well until the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) would flag Jones just three days out from fight night after testing positive for a banned substance, and Jones would again be removed from the main event. Cormier faced Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva in a three round light heavyweight non-title bout and Jones was left to deal with an outpouring of criticism and outrage from mixed martial arts (MMA) fans.
Four months later Jones joined UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan on Thursday’s episode of his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, courtesy of MMA Fighting, to discuss how he found out he was taken off of the card and reveal he suffered the first anxiety attack of his life as a result:
“The week of the fight, UFC 200, my manager Malki calls up me up to my hotel room and says ‘hey I want to talk to you, man,'” and I said ‘what’s going on,’ and he said ‘you’re not going to be fighting,’ and I said ‘what are you talking about’ and he said ‘you didn’t pass your drug test.’
“And the level of hurt and confusion and, I literally had an anxiety attack and I’ve never had one of those before,” Jones continued. “I felt like the whole room just came in on me. The whole room came down on me. I couldn’t breathe. I remember opening up the window out to the balcony so that I could breathe and realize I was not trapped.”
No plans have been made for Jones’ Octagon return, as he is currently serving a nine-month suspension as a result of his USADA violation, but current light heavyweight titleholder Daniel Cormier is expected to defend his strap against ‘Rumble’ Johnson upon his return from injury.
When Jones does return to the Octagon after his suspension is up, however, it should be interesting to see if he is granted an immediate shot at the gold or if he will have to earn it back all over again.
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