But in the court of public opinion, he faces an uphill battle.
The former two-time UFC light heavyweight titleholder found himself in the midst of controversy again this weekend when the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided not to grant Jones a license for his upcoming main event championship bout vs. Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 due to a drug-testing abnormality discovered during an analysis of the past 18 months of Jones’s test results.
According to a statement from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, an “extremely low” trace amount of a banned substance that Jones was previously sanctioned for was still present in his system, but he is not being investigated for a violation due to the amount providing “no performance enhancement.