UFC president Dana White supports claim of ‘good news’ for Jon Jones

UFC president Dana White added fuel to the fire ignited by Jon Jones on social media this week during a Tuesday radio appearance.

Jones posted a private Instagram video on Monday to reveal he had received good news in his quest to clear his name after a positive drug test cost him a spot on the UFC 200 card last month.

During an interview on “The Jim Rome Show,” White supported the claim.

“Well, it’s coming back now that it looks like he did not take the supplement that everybody thought he took. We’ll see how this thing plays out,” White said. “I don’t even know if this is public. I (don’t) know if I can talk about it. Normally, I talk about anything, but when it comes to medical stuff, you can’t do it. It’s looking like Jon Jones did not take the drug everybody thought he took. It looks like it’s something else.”

Jones was pulled from his headlining light heavyweight title bout against Daniel Cormier just three days before the event when the United States Anti-Doping Agency informed the UFC the former champion had tested positive for a pair of banned estrogen blockers.

During a tearful news conference the following day, Jones proclaimed his innocence and vowed to investigate the source of the positive test.

“I’ll let this thing play out and if that’s true and that’s what USADA and the Nevada State Athletic Commission say happened, it could look good for Jon Jones,” White claimed during the radio interview.

Representatives for USADA, which independently administers the UFC’s anti-doping program, declined comment. NAC officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Jones, who is administratively suspended pending adjudication of the case, faces an uphill battle to avoid harsh discipline as he must go through the legal process of both USADA and the NAC.

Both agencies will determine any sanctions independent of one another.

White stopped short of saying Jones had been treated unfairly by the system.

“He didn’t get a bum rap,” White said. “He definitely didn’t get a bum rap, but the substance that he was on, it was a pill that you take when you’re coming off of steroids. But this thing is apparently in other things. Jon took something else.

“Where he doesn’t come off clean is you have to tell USADA everything that you put in your body leading up to the fight and he did not.”

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.