This will end up being more a hearing on USADA's failings than Jon Jones'.
Thanks for the live briefs.
As I've pointed out before, the only reason this is such a screw up is that USADA failed to test a guilty athlete for a year. Then followed that lack of testing with anything except a rigorous and consistent testing schedule to show data for a "pulsing" theory.
There's also the consideration that the suspension being lowered put us here with no consideration that shortening the suspension puts a positive blood test back in the testing pool before the testing science has a clear answer.
Jones doped. Then USADA looked away for a year. Then USADA gave random tests without any scientific rigor.
USADA owes us and the other fighters,
but ALSO Jones, a rigorous and consistent testing schedule that allows for scientific validation of their hypothesis.
If Jones doped in June 2018, his testing samples would look just like they do right now.
If the pulsing effect is true, his samples would look just like they do right now.
It's USADA's fault for creating that ambiguity and then trying to sell the second theory only during licensing request. There is only a "lack of evidence" of re-adminstration due to USADA creating a bad dataset. USADA and UFC's complicit nature on this is clear when you look at the timeline for which data was made publicly available to commissions and backdoor deals for fight moves were made before data was brought forward.
NSAC apparently agrees with all of this because they have a good solution that should have been implemented in July 2018 or even 2017...
LAS VEGAS – The Nevada State Athletic Commission today voted unanimously to grant
Jon Jones a one-fight conditional license to compete at UFC 235, clearing the way for the light heavyweight champ’s fight against Anthony Smith.
As a condition of his licensure, Jones must submit to and pay for additional drug testing by the NSAC over the next 40 days, or until the March 2 pay-per-view event. The commission will then meet in February to determine more drug testing to be carried out by a mix of three agencies: UFC anti-doping partner U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA) and the NSAC.
NSAC Chairman Anthony Marnell said the testing will continue for all of 2019 and warned Jones, “you’re probably not going to get another license here” if the UFC champ stopped early.
Jones will now be tested in regular intervals for the rest of the year, at minimum, developing the needed retrospective study to prove or disprove a "pulsing" hypothesis. This was the right answer last summer, but even more the right answer in 2017 after the original doping failing.
And even then, they failed to get nearly a year of sample data 2017-2018 to prove this not a re-ingestion. So the data will always be partly flawed, only allowing a July 2018 until December 2019 data set. If Jones stops testing positive this month, USADA will claim its evidence of an 18 month pulsing effect, when its also consistent with a 6 month positive from a 2018 drug taking as the current studies show.
Jones must "pulse" well into 2019 to support the pulsing hypothesis and then we have the beginning of support for the hypothesis.
Too bad USADA screwed it all up.