UFC President Dana White "knew about Jon Jones’ positive drug test before this past weekend’s UFC 182 event," but he "never considered pulling the light heavyweight champ from his fight with Daniel Cormier," according to Morgan & Bohn of MMA JUNKIE. White appeared yesterday on FS1's "America's Pregame," confirming that he "learned of Jones’ pre-fight test results, in which the champ was positive for cocaine metabolites, ahead of the long-awaited clash with Cormier." However, he said that UFC officials "never considered delaying or canceling the fight based on the results" (MMAJUNKIE.com, 1/7). White said of why he did not cancel the fight, "No. 1, he was healthy and No. 2, the reason ... the hammer would drop on a guy would be if he tested for performance-enhancing drugs." White said Cormier was not informed of the positive test because he did not "need to be." White said if Jones had tested positive for PEDs, "everything would have got shut down." White: "Jon Jones was contracted to fight. We have a contract with him and everybody thinks that we can just say, 'Hey, the fight's off. The fight's not happening.'" FS1's Mike Hill: "So if he wanted to fight he had the right?" White: "Damn right he had the right to fight." White said the positive test was released to the public because the public "has access to it, so they have to release it" ("America's Pregame," FS1, 1/7).
CHANGE WOULD DO YOU GOOD: In Calgary, Daniel Austin wrote Jones' positive drug test is "shining a negative light on the UFC." For the UFC and the governing bodies that regulate drug testing in MMA, it "needs to be a major wakeup call." Drug policies "need to be clear, coherent and consistent." Fans and fighters alike "need to understand what's being tested for and why." A policy that "brings up this many questions isn't doing its job" (CALGARY SUN, 1/7). ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto wrote if Jones "has a significant drug problem the UFC is aware of, attempting to hide it and promote him in a cage fight is clearly irresponsible." If it was "viewed more as a dumb, but infrequent, recreational use, canceling a multimillion dollar fight would have probably been overkill." Jones' positive test "clearly violated the UFC's code of conduct," and the promotion "would be well within its right to punish Jones in some way." But there is "no precedent for this situation" (ESPN.com, 1/7).
