Jon Jones has done it again.
The veteran UFC light-heavyweight champion has failed a drug test and this weekend’s title fight against nemesis Daniel Cormier is off, the UFC said late Wednesday night.
At a hastily called news conference three days before the promotion’s landmark 200th PPV card, UFC President Dana White walked to the podium and said with an air of resignation “boom!”
The UFC had been notified by the Nevada State Athletic Commission of the drug test failure, Mr. White said, without saying what the substance was.
This is “obviously super, super disappointing,” Mr. White said of the UFC’s latest problems with Jones, who is routinely ranked among the sport’s all-time greatest fighters but has been stripped of the title and suspended before for multiple infractions.
Jones was stripped of his light-heavyweight title in 2015 over felony hit-and-run charges, which itself had followed an unrelated DUI charge and a failed test for cocaine.
“This sucks. I don’t know what to say. It’s unfortunate,” Mr. White said.
The Jones-Cormier fight had been planned as the main event for the UFC200 card and the two men, who openly dislike each other in ways that go beyond the customary fighter trash talk, had another testy face off at a press conference in Las Vegas.
According to Los Angeles Times MMA writer Lance Pugmire, Cormier “says he’s very disappointed, I worked hard to be prepared for this … I put myself in position to win this fight. to hear this is sad, from a competitive and financial standpoint.”
When Cormier won the UFC’s interim light-heavyweight championship while Jones was suspended last year, he opened his victory interview by saying “Jon Jones, get your s—t together.”
According to Mr.White, the drug test Jones failed was made June 16 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which he said would determine the penalty. He speculated that it could be as much as a two-year ban.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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