At UFC 214, Jon Jones finally completed his comeback, knocking out his rival Daniel Cormier and recapturing the UFC light heavyweight title he never lost inside the cage. It was supposed to be a new beginning for Jones, a chance to restart one of the most successful careers in MMA history. Instead, it proved more of the same as Jones once again failed a USADA drug test and had his win overturned to a no-contest. Jones was looking at a possible four-year suspension. But last week, Jones was finally given his punishment – a 15-month suspension retroactive to July 2017. It was a significantly lighter suspension than most had anticipated.
USADA didn’t just hand Jones a softball suspension out of the goodness of its hearts though: Jones received a lesser punishment by availing himself of Article 10.6.1.1 in the UFC’s anti-doping policy which essentially states that a fighter can get a reduced suspension if he or she provides substantial information and cooperation in another case that can lead to anti-doping sanctions or even criminal charges. Jones appears to be the first fighter to have taken advantage of the rule (though his Jones’ manager denies that Jones ratted anyone out to get a lesser suspension), but he wasn’t the first to be offered it.
Last month, Fabricio Werdum was suspended by USADA for two years for failing an out-of-competition drug test in April. Werdum apparently got the same offer as Jones, but the former heavyweight champion recently told Combate (h/t MMAJunkie) he would never “snitch” on anyone else to save his own skin.
“What surprised me the most was at the end of the interview, it was something that I found absurd,” Werdum said. “They said, ‘Werdum, here’s the thing: If you tell on someone …’ It was what you could call ‘delacao premiada’ (plea bargain). ‘Werdum, if you tell on someone’ – using the slang, if you’re a snitch – ‘we’ll shorten your suspension. Because you’re going to have to pay something. Even if we find the substance in any of the products we test, even if we find it, you’ll have to pay something.’
“… For the guy to make me an offer like that, to snitch on someone, that goes against my principles. I can’t tell on someone. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t do it. How am I going to snitch on someone to make it better for me, to lower my suspension or whatever?”
Werdum tested positive for the anabolic steroid trenbolone and its metabolite epitrenbolone in an out-of-competition urine screening conducted on April 25 in advance of his scheduled UFC Moscow fight against Aleksei Oleinik. His refusal to “snitch” on anyone else didn’t do him any favors with USADA who gave him a two-year suspension fating retroactively to May 22 — the date of his provisional suspension — meaning the earliest he will be eligible to compete is on May 22, 2020. For Werdum, a first-time offender, that seems overly harsh especially given that a repeat offender like Jones only got about 60 percent as stern a punishment as he did (though, true to form, Werdum did not even name Jones as the party he was speaking about).
“I’m not going to name names, but I saw that recently a guy who was supposed to have caught four years ended up catching 15 months,” Werdum said. “And I caught 24 months. How come? If it was his second or third offense? Is it two weights and two measures? How does that work? It’s very strange, really.”
Ultimately, Werdum’s adherence to MMA omerta could end up costing him his career. At 41 years old, “Vai Cavalo” won’t be eligible to return to action until his is well into he is 43. And though other fighters have had success into their 40s, Werdum admits that though he does not wish to retire yet, this suspension may force his hand, or force him to leave the UFC.
“I want to keep fighting,” Werdum concluded. “I’m training every day – of course, I’m not training with the same intensity of when I have a fight. … I’ve thought of fighting in a different country. I’m going to see what I’ll do now. It’s hard now – it’s all very recent. I still have to talk to the UFC. I’m still working on TV as a commentator (with the UFC’s Spanish-language broadcasts). There are many things happening and I need to take a moment to really think, because sometimes I’ll say something, and I’ll regret it later.
“… I’ll have to see what I’ll do. I have two more fights in the UFC. How long will I have to wait? Will I have to wait out these two years? Will I be able to fight in another country? What will I do? I don’t know yet. I’m still indecisive. I still have a lot of thinking to do.”
