UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky has become famous off of steroid scandals.
He was a part of the investigation which almost caught Lance Armstrong and other elite cyclists, but really made his mark in the BALCO case which saw the deposition of many to baseball players, most notably Barry Bonds. Novitzky was also instrumental in the development and legalization of the Designer Anabolic Steroid Control Act (ACA). This week he appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and discussed the status of former UFC Light heavyweight champion and arguable greatest of all time, Jon Jones.
Jon first tested positive for two estrogen blockers before a rematch against rival and current champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 200. The fight was called off, but Jones supplied a tainted male enhancement pill and so received a short suspension.
In July at UFC 214, Jones finally returned and reclaimed his belt, defeating DC with a third round head kick. However, he was soon stripped of the belt after popping for the designer East-German steroid Turinabol in a test taken at weigh-ins.
Jones’s fate has been uncertain, but Novitzky thinks the signs for him are positive:
“It would not make a lot of sense for an individual, a UFC athlete, especially a championship contender like Jon Jones who knew, ‘I’m tested quite regularly in this program’ – it would not make a lot of sense that that would be your drug of choice if you’re trying to cheat.
“Again, who knows where it plays out? But on the surface of things, at this point in the game with that type of information out there, it wouldn’t indicate intentional use. That could be wrong. I don’t know that definitively, and we’ll see how this plays out.”
The interesting objection to this reasoning is -why would that matter? If an athlete tests positive for a banned PED, what difference does it make where the PED came from? Should it not be the athlete’s responsibility to monitor everything he ingests?
Lance Armstrong famously had his team research a product that contained the banned substance that he popped for and then supplied that product as the culprit- and it worked!
Still though, if Jones can prove that he unwillingly or unknowingly took the substance he could be back in the cage soon. And his manager seems excited about their progress in the issue.
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