Jon 'Bones' Jones Pulled from UFC 200 Card Over Possible Doping Violation
BOSTON (CBS) -- The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency informed Jon Jones Wednesday of a potential doping violation. As a result, the UFC interim light heavyweight champion has been pulled from his scheduled title unification bout against Daniel Cormier at Saturday's UFC 200.
UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky said that Jones "tested positive for a banned substance in an out-of-competition sample" on June 16. It's unclear if the substance in question was a performance-enhancing drug, the punishment for which would be a two-year suspension under UFC's anti-doping program. Jones has never tested positive for PEDs in his career but did test positive for cocaine in January 2015, coincidentally also before a scheduled bout against Cormier.
UFC president Dana White and Cormier held an impromptu press conference late Wednesday, during which Cormier described the news as "very disappointing." UFC 200 was expected to be one of the biggest events in UFC history but has now forced Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt into the main event.
Jones is expected to address the media at 11:30 a.m. at the MGM Grand.