Jeff Novitzky Says That USADA Saw A Reemergence Of Metabolite For At Least Six Months In Jon Jones’ Samples
UFC Executive Jeff Novitzky says that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had noticed the reemergence of a long term metabolite for approximately six months, which turned out to be Turinabol.
“I think it was December 6th, [USADA] sent a letter to us and they sent a letter to the Nevada state athletic commission saying, ‘Just you’re aware, over the last six months, early in this six months we’ve seen a reemergence of this long-term in Jon’s samples.’” Novitzky said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “USADA didn’t need to notify them. They thought, out of an abundance of caution, let’s let Nevada know that this issue exists. That’s all good, Nevada gets this. I talk with them, they’re like, ‘Whoa, this is concerning, but we don’t see anything in our jurisdiction here, so I certainly hope that no subsequent tests show up positive because that could be an issue.’ And sure enough, USADA collects a sample from Jon on 12/9, they expedited the results because they knew a fight was coming up and they do that now when fights are close or the collections are done close to a fight, and here he pulses back up to between 60 and 80 picograms.”
The amount of the substance in Jones’ system was smaller than a single piece of salt, if that one piece was sliced millions and millions of times.
Novitzky also wants to make it clear that the NSAC didn’t force the UFC to move the card after the news about Jones came out.
“There’s some misconception out there,” Novitzky said. “[The NAC] did not say this fight is absolutely not happening next week. In fact, they, I think, were understanding of these issues but said, ‘Look, optically, this doesn’t look great, and we feel that, out of an abundance of caution, that we need to have a public hearing and be very transparent about this, because this is some weird shit.’”
UFC 232 takes place on Saturday, December 29 from The Forum in Inglewood, California with Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
