USADA confirms TMZ report that Jon Jones tested positive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol.
Bloody Elbow can confirm that the initial TMZ report that Jon Jones failed his UFC 214 in-competition drug test for the anabolic steroid Turinabol is correct.
In a statement provided to Bloody Elbow by a USADA spokesperson, the anti-doping organization said:
"Given that Mr. Jones' representative has publicly commented about the substance, USADA can confirm that his sample tested positive for turinabol.”
Jones’ representative, Malki Kawa, said on yesterday’s MMA Hour that he believed Jones tested positive for Turinabol, and today’s statement from USADA confirms that. Another client of Malki Kawa’s management company, Frank Mir, received a two year suspension after also testing positive for the substance.
Turinabol has a long history of being used by athletes, starting with the East German Olympic team back in the 1960s, and has seen a resurgence in use over the last decade or so, with high profile failures in athletics, baseball and MMA happening since the development of a more sensitive test for detecting the substance was introduced to WADA accredited labs over the past 5 years.
Jones’ agent is adamant that the failure is due to tainted supplements, and the substance has indeed been found in several supplements by USADA over the past few years.