CSAC revokes Jon Jones’ license, issues $205,000 fine

Jon Jones was given a license revocation and fined $205,000 for his positive drug test for the steroid Turinabol on Tuesday by the California State Athletic Commission.

It was clear from how the proceedings went that California was not looking for a long suspension, leaving that to USADA, which still has to rule on the failure. USADA could suspend Jones up to four years based on it being a second positive test, or six years given extenuating circumstances.

A revocation of the license should mean Jones would be eligible to apply for a license one year from now, although Jones’ attorney, Howard Jacobs, said he thought it meant he could apply in August, which would be one year after the positive test, and he was never corrected nor was the time frame on when he could apply specifically addressed.

The hearing went badly for Jones, who failed the test on July 28th, the day before his light heavyweight title win over Daniel Cormier. The result of that fight was overturned due to the positive drug test, which came back after the fight was over. Cormier was given back the championship.

Jones repeatedly admitted to making bad judgment calls in life, partying too much, and being immature, but steadfastly denied that he would ever use steroids. He said that out of all the UFC champions, nobody is more anti-PED and claimed if he had used steroids, why had he never tested positive for them before now.

Nevertheless, his team, after delaying the hearing until now, could give no explanation how Turinabol wound up in his system. They could not find a contaminated supplement and essentially offered no defense past,”Why would he do it?” and “Why did he pass tests a few weeks earlier?”

Worse, they found numerous incidents of lying on commission forms regarding supplements he was taking, both in the past, and for the second Cormier fight where his team gave evidence of testing 17 supplements, ten of which were not declared on the form.

Jones said they were meticulous in his supplement usage because of his lessons from the past in his 2016 test failure.

Jones also listed no supplements taken in a previous form while admitting that he used them. Worse, he admitted that his management had signed his name for a USADA tutorial on the drug policy and that he had never actually taken the tutorial and his management did it for him.

Ultimately, he was grilled over both his personal life miscues and professional miscues. He was also told that his management has been his enablers in this situation.

Still, Andy Foster, the head of the California commission said that he believed Jones, asking why would he knowingly take a steroid with knowledge that a test was coming the week of the fight.