How Did Jon Jones Test Positive Again
LAS VEGAS >> Here we are again.
Those were the opening words from Jeff Novitzky, the UFC Vice President of Athlete Health of Performance, addressing the news Thursday that minuscule trace levels of turinabol appeared again in 2 recent drug tests administered to light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
It is still another chapter in the mercurial career of the one of the greatest and well-nigh controversial fighters in UFC history.
The good news is, because the amounts were once more so microscopic, it doesn't affect Jones' title defence confronting Anthony Smith at UFC 235 on Saturday.
The bad news is it's more questions surrounding Jones and drug testing, which is why Novitzky met with the media Thursday before the UFC 235 open workouts at the MGM Grand.
Here'southward a breakdown of what information technology all means:
Circular ONE
The low levels of turinabol get-go appeared in Jones' system in December and resulted in the entire UFC 232 card – which featured Jones successfully defending his title against Alexander Gustafsson – to be moved from Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena to The Forum in Inglewood.
The consequence came westward on six days' notice because the Nevada Land Athletic Commission said information technology didn't take plenty time to properly vet the positive exam. The California State Athletic Committee felt comfy with the evidence and the discussion of scientists and experts that at that place was no show of the turinabol existence readministered.
The CSAC as well approved the fight after asking Jones to take a drug test at KorvaLabs in San Dimas, too as enroll with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), which has no ties to the UFC, unlike USADA, which is the UFC's anti-doping partner.
ROUND 2 (AND Earlier)
Scientists and experts have determined the microscopic amounts of turinabol are a residual "pulsing" from when Jones tested positive for the anabolic steroid in 2017 and was later suspended for fifteen months.
For the record, Jones has besides tested positive for cocaine metabolites at the cease of 2014, which he admitted to using. Considering it was an out-of-contest drug test and the principal metabolite benzoylecgonine is not banned out-of-competition by the World Anti-Doping Bureau, Jones was immune to fight at UFC 182. He was somewhen fined $25,000 for violating the UFC's Athlete Code of Comport policy.
He besides tested positive for ii banned substances – clomiphene, an anti-estrogenic substance, and letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor – in July 2016. Though Jones professed his innocence and an arbitration panel concluded Jones did not have the banned substances intentionally, USADA still suspended Jones for one year.
WHY DOESN'T THIS ONE MATTER?
Jones was tested five times in a span of 23 days in February. A USADA exam on Feb. 1 came back negative, every bit did a Feb. 9 VADA test ordered past the CSAC. NSAC tests on Feb. fourteen and xv came back positive, the commencement for 40 picograms and the second for 20 picograms. On Feb. xviii, a VADA exam ordered by Nevada came dorsum negative.
To Novitzky, this is really good news.
"Y'all take two very low-level picogram positives volume-ended past two negative tests inside a week and a week and a half," Novitzky said. "If in that location was re-administration of this substance, you would conspicuously meet a parent compound, you'd see short- and mid-term metabolites, which science has shown to be in existence for several weeks. Once again, information technology's unfortunate for Jon, but based on the levels of corporeality of testing, information technology'south the best evidence I've seen."
HOW MUCH IS A PICOGRAM?
A picogram is one-trillionth of a gram. Or, equally Novitzky has put it over and once more: "Take a grain of common salt, cut it 55 million times. One of those pieces is a picogram."
WHY THE Ii POSITIVES?
Novitzky said he spoke with Jones' team about February. 14 and 15. He was told that was when Jones' training has reached its zenith.
"That was right in the heart when Jon, what his camp told me, was peaking in his grooming," he said.
WHY At present?
To exist able to detect one piece out of 55 million particles of the equivalent of a grain of salt is attestation to the enhanced testing. Novitzky said there are other athletes who have tested positive for such minuscule amounts – including UFC fighter Grant Dawson, whose potential violation was dismissed by USADA in early December.
"It's condign quite common and I call back information technology'south just the circumstance at that level, the sensitivity level of testing, over last couple of years, has increased 10-, hundredfold," Novitzky said.
In example you're wondering what the adjacent microscopic level might be, Novitzky said he doesn't know the name of the adjacent-lowest level of measurement.
WHAT DID JON JONES SAY?
The calorie-free heavyweight champion didn't work out Th, instead bringing out his daughters – Mia, Carmen and Olivia – and saying he would take pictures with fans.
In addressing the media, Jones seemed resigned to his picogram paradox, but remains at peace with it all.
"I'm comfortable with the idea that it's gonna be part of my career and I don't know how long it's gonna final. What helps me slumber skilful at night is knowing I submit to every drug test, I've been tested by iii of the nigh powerful agencies in the world. I've never avoided a test. I just feel the more accessible I am, the more data they empathise that they all have in this situation, the more everybody volition understand."
Jones also spoke of other athletes – in Major League Baseball and the UFC, for example – experiencing like bug with delayed positive tests.
No one has his notoriety and platform though.
"I know I'thou nearly a leader in this whole development. I'm comfortable in this space. I merely wish fans would not just wait at the headlines, just click on the links and read and learn what'due south actually going on."
WHAT DOES ANTHONY SMITH Remember?
Jones' opponent was asked afterwards his open up workout Th what he thought of Jones' latest drug tests. Smith, who in the past has said he doesn't care well-nigh picograms, wasn't as diplomatic this time.
"For whatever reason, it tends to pulse when he gets close to a fight. I expected information technology. I would take been more shocked if it wasn't at that place. Information technology is what it is … we're proficient. We're good.
"I trust the Nevada State Athletic Commission. I don't understand the science behind it. It doesn't make any sense to any of us. We're just regular people, and so information technology doesn't make any sense to me."
Smith said he spoke to Bob Bennett, who heads up the NSAC, and trusts Bennett wouldn't permit Jones to accept any unfair advantage over him.
Even so, Smith is nonetheless skeptical of Jones. "Obviously there's been some sort of indiscretion there. At some point he used PEDs. I don't recall nosotros can argue that. But equally far as at present? I think Jon is a make clean athlete."
Source: https://www.ocregister.com/ufc-235-jon-jones-tests-positive-for-picograms-again-why-it-does-and-doesnt-matter
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