Jon Jones Officially Got His License From NSAC On Wednesday
There’re no more hurdles in the way of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in regards to his upcoming UFC 239 fight against Brazilian sensation Thiago Santos as the executive director of Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Bob Bennett confirmed with ESPN recently that commission has officially granted ‘Bones’ a fight license for July 6 event.
Jones last fought back in March against Anthony Smith at UFC 235, but commission granted him conditional license for only one fight just because ‘Bones’ agreed to participate in extra drug testing as part of that conditional agreement.
This time Jones complied with NSAC and passed all his required drug tests thus commission’s executive director said Jones has actually been given a license for the remainder of 2019. As per Bob Jones has passed all drug tests by NSAC, United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA), and Voluntary Anti Doping Agency (VADA).
“He’s been a consummate professional and given his full cooperation,” Bennett told ESPN while revealing that Jones recent drug tests still showed traces of steroid metabolites.
That’s the same substance that Jon Jones tested positive for following his head kick KO win over Daniel Cormier back in August 2017 at UFC 214. Before his fight with Alexander Gustafsson, his specimens showed the same picograms that kept Jones from fighting at UFC 232 in Nevada back in December. Thus promotion shifted the entire fight card from Las Vegas to Los Angeles at a short time.
Jones has already been punished for this violation so USADA wouldn’t give him any penalty for traces of picograms.
Commission believes Jones still has that effect of pulsing and he’s not consuming the banned substances which is why he’s been given a license.
Thiago’s fight will be the third contest for Jones in just seven months, and he intended to fight one more time this year.
