Nevada State Athletic Commission statement on Jon Jones. #UFC235 pic.twitter.com/S9J38gvihI
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) February 28, 2019
Whenever fight fans see the words “statement” and “Jon Jones” in a headline, they are rightly worried. However, those fans can rest easy now the Nevada Athletic Commission has cleared Jones to compete at UFC 235 on Saturday.
Per a release from the NAC on Thursday, Jones has been tested by USADA six times since the beginning of February and two of those tests found the now-infamous 20 and 40 picograms of Turinabol metabolites which has haunted the UFC light heavyweight champion since his victory over Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 at the end of 2018.
However, those two flagged tests have not affected Jones’ licence to fight on Saturday night in Las Vegas: “…consistent with the NSAC’s January 29, 2019 order to issue Mr. Jones a single fight license…the findings will not preclude him from competing on March 2, 2019.”
According to MMA Fighting, Jones has been tested a total of 10 times since his victorious rematch with Gustafsson. Per their report, Jones tested positive four times in that span for those levels of that metabolite.
However, the NAC took advice from Dr. Daniel Eichner of the Sports Medicine and Research Laboratory, who said: “There is no scientific or medical evidence that the athlete (Jones) would have an unfair advantage leading up to, or for, his contest scheduled on March 2, 2019.”
UFC 235 is set to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on 2 March. The event will be headlined by the UFC light heavyweight championship bout between Jones and Smith, with a UFC welterweight title fight featuring Tyron Woodley and Kamaru Usman serving as the co-main event.