Jon Jones’ Doping Hearing Delayed Until 2018

The consequences of former UFC champion Jon Jones’ latest USADA drug test failure will not be known until at least next year.

After Jones tested positive for banned anabolic steroid Turinabol during his third-round knockout win over archrival Daniel Cormier at July 29’s UFC 214, he was set to have his first hearing in front of the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) on December 12, but CSAC executive officer Andy Foster informed MMA Fighting today that Jones was granted a continuance and will have his first hearing in February.

The current failure could see the talented but oft-troubled “Bones” banned for up to four years, which would obviously put his otherwise illustrious mixed martial arts career in jeopardy. Jones will appear before the CSAC, who changed his win over Cormier in Anaheim to a no contest, and he will also have to answer to USADA for a second time.

Cormier, meanwhile, was given the title back.

Jones was infamously removed from his scheduled main event rematch with Cormier at July 2016’s UFC 200 after testing positive for clomiphene and Letrozol, which he said he unknowingly ingested in sexual performance enhancement pills, which he jokingly came to refer to as “dick pills.” But the scene is no laughing matter for a fighter whose career, which was at one time most certainly headed for the deserving moniker of the greatest of all-time, is quickly devolving into a saddening downward spiral with no end in sight.

While USADA acknowledged that Jones was not necessarily a drug cheat during his first hearing surrounding UFC 200, they also suspended him one year for what they deemed gross negligence on his and his team’s part.

His team is currently once again claiming Jones did not knowingly take any anabolic steroids before UFC 214 and are having his supplements tested for any evidence of tainting. With Jone seemingly unable to make it to the Octagon without some sort of drug-related controversy, however, that defense will most likely get tougher and tougher to put over on the CSAC and USADA.