Jon Jones’ attorney Howard Jacobs: ‘We’ve been able to establish the source of the prohibited substances’

Fans of Jon Jones should be delighted to hear some very interesting news from Jones’ attorney, Howard Jacobs.

Speaking with MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas on The Luke Thomas Show, Jacobs revealed some major details regarding Jones’ failed drug tests for banned substances.

“We’ve been able to establish the source of the prohibited substances,” Jacobs said (transcribed by Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “It came from a product that Jon took that was not labeled with either of these substances. We had it tested, the product was contaminated with both of them. I know USADA also independently had the product tested; their testing confirms what we found. We then sent essentially the same pills that we had had tested to be tested by USADA’s lab, which also found the same thing. So pretty much every time it’s been tested, it’s shown that the product is contaminated with both clomiphene and Letrozole, the two substances (Jones tested positive for).”

Jones has an arbitration hearing set for October 31 where he could face up to a year suspension or be let off with as little as a warning.

“It should definitely lead to a significant reduction, that’s our position. The way the anti-doping rules, at least with the UFC program, are written, they mirror the World Anti-Doping Code to some extent. There are some differences but essentially in a case like this you can’t argue that you have no fault if you take a supplement or product that’s contaminated but you can argue that you’re not significantly at fault, which gives you the ability to argue for a reduced sanction. So the sanction range under the UFC rules would be between a warning at a minimum and of course the maximum is at a year.”

Other UFC fighters recently to have fought their case and found their supplements to be tainted include Tim Means and Yoel Romero. Both cases for Means and Romero found that supplements they were taking were tainted with the banned substances they tested positive for. Romero and Means both accepted a reduced suspension, which was a six-month sanction from USADA.

Jon Jones is set to be the first UFC fighter to appeal a USADA sanction by way of arbitration.