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Jon Jones Pulled from UFC 200 Title Fight
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Jones has been pulled from Saturday’s title fight with Daniel Cormier.
Published on July 8, 2016

Interim UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones on Thursday, addressed the media and fans denying any wrongdoing related to the charges of a doping violation.

"They found something in one of my samples that I have no clue what it is," Jones said. "I don't even know how to pronounce it. I've been taking the same supplements the majority of my career. I've been so outspoken about being against any type of performance enhancers.  To this day, I'm extremely against performance enhancers.

Jones was pulled from Saturday’s title fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200, after being told by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of a potential doping violation late Wednesday.

UFC president Dana White made the announcement to pull Jones from the fight shortly after at a news conference inside the MGM Grand.

Jones reportedly tested positive for a banned substance in an out-of-competition sample taken on June 16 by USADA.

"The whole thing sucks. Being labeled as someone who would cheat hurts more than anything else I've ever been through in my career," Jones said.

Jones has already requested that the USADA analyze the B-sample of the positive test in hopes of clearing things up. Jones’ manager hopes that the results could be available as early as Thursday evening but he acknowledged that the results could be very slim.

The UFC introduced the anti-doping program last year and since then Jones has submitted six samples but this is the first time he has tested positive for a performance enhancing drug.

The severity of first-time offenders in the anti-doping program are subject to a two-year ban. Jones seemed optimistic after being asked about the ban saying that "If I do have to sit out two years, I will definitely be back.”

"I'm already thinking about the good that can happen. I'm optimistic. But man, at the end of the day, I'm a fighter. I'm a fighter. Even though I may seem broken up here, I'm not broken. I'm just really upset."

The fight Saturday was between Jones and Cormier was scheduled to be the main event that would unify the light heavyweight championship. The fight has now been replaced with a heavyweight matchup between Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt.

Michael Geslani
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