November 22, 2024

Dana White targets early 2019 for Jon Jones return

Dana White and Jon Jones
 Esther Lin/MMAFighting.com

Jon Jones will be eligible to compete again on Oct. 28, but Dana White claims that the controversial former UFC champion will likely return to action early next year.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Jones received a 15-month suspension from USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping policy, for his failed drug test from a sample collected July 28, 2017.

There has been ample speculation regarding the possibility of Jones headlining UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 3, but the UFC president’s latest comments have thrown water on that idea.

“Beginning of next year,” White told ESPN’s ‘Get Up’ show when asked about Jones’ return.

“He’s been off for awhile. I think he’s a little heavy right now and he needs to start cutting weight and getting back into shape and we should see him early next year.”

White also discussed how Jones ended up receiving a shortened suspension for the offense.

“[USADA] had a third party independent investigator come in and investigate. They investigated and what they believe it was was contaminated supplements which is a huge problem right now. You have very few companies that actually make these products and they are putting bad things through the same silos as they are putting the good things through and yeah it’s contaminated supplements.”

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