By CASSANDRA COUSINEAU
LVSportsBiz.com
Dana White and Jon Jones.
What a tag team.
White, the UFC president and ringmaster, went on ESPN (UFC’s media partner and unofficial PR agency) late Sunday afternoon to let the world know that light heavyweight Jones would indeed compete on the UFC 232 card Saturday.
It just won’t be in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It will be in Los Angeles.
In fact, the entire 232 event, as in all of its 26 fighters, including a historic match between top women fighters Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes, will now be moved to the Los Angeles Forum on six days notice. Quite the switcharoo in venues, cities and states. California’s fight regulators said OK to UFC and White.
Here’s why: A Dec. 9 sample from Jones taken by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, which administers the UFC’s drug-testing program) was flagged as containing a metabolite of a steroid known as Turinabol. That’s the very same banned substance that got Jones popped for a 15-month suspension and nullified his win after defeating Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight crown at UFC 214 in July 2017.
White announced on ESPN that UFC 232 will still take place — just not in Las Vegas where state fight regulators said Jones could not fight at the event. So, UFC fans will be given a full refund for the Las Vegas location and will be offered assistance on being seated in LA should they choose to travel to the Forum instead.
The USADA said it “concluded that the extremely low level” of the metabolite found in Jones “is consistent with residual amounts from his prior exposure for which he was previously sanctioned.
Jones said on Twitter he was “focused on achieving my ultimate goal of reclaiming my Light Heavyweight title.” He added, “I have willingly submitted to every USADA test in the lead up to this fight and USADA has confirmed what I’ve been saying all along, that I’m a clean athlete.”
White’s been on a PR tour for the past several hours Sunday. He recently told MMA Junkie, “Who’s made more mistakes than Jon Jones? The answer is nobody.” White was referring to the fighter’s multiple failed drug tests, as well as past legal woes. “Jon Jones has got his life together and he did not test positive. He did not do anything wrong here. Gustafsson has flown in from Sweden, been here weeks training for this fight. Jon Jones has trained for this fight. Neither guy violated any rules or did anything wrong. These guys need to fight, it’s for the title. This is the right thing to do.”
The right thing to do? As in change everything for thousands of fans that have purchased tickets and booked vacations around a New Year’s Eve weekend experience hosted at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas and the many vendors doing work here are out of potentially millions of dollars. And then there are the athletes.
Consider this:
- Nevada has no income tax
- California has the highest income tax in the U.S.
- Some athletes will need new blood/neurology exams
- Athletes will incur new costs for support staff to travel, hotels and last minute game day preparation goes up.
It would’ve made more sense to drop Jones from this card, move Nunes vs Cyborg to the headline, and find a new co-main event. But, the UFC is about making dollars. Not sense.
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