Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Miesha Tate retired after a decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205.
Jon Jones is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion who recently failed his second drug test and according to Tate, the fighter can’t use ignorance as an excuse any longer.
“You know the rules directly ahead of time,” Tate explained on Sirius XM’s MMA Tonight. “USADA hands out pamphlets, tons of information. They make it very very easy. If you have a question, if there’s anything that a doctor prescribes you, you have phone numbers, you have a website. You can run it through a number of people to verify if this is a safe product or not. I utilized this many times myself, just to be precautions. I have a slight thyroid disorder. My thyroid runs a little bit slow. I took a natural pig hormone, but I wanted to make sure that it was safe, it was okay. It was cleared, and it was alright, but I went through the process to make sure that what I was putting into my body — I sent all my supplements to USADA to have them cleared, and they’re happy to do that. And that gives me the reassurance because I don’t want to accidentally take something. But if you’re ‘accidentally’ speeding, and a police officer pulls you over, and said, ‘sorry sir, I was going 20 over, I didn’t realize,’ you’re still going 20 over, period. You can’t use ignorance as an excuse, and it needs to be 100% clean, not basically clean.”
Tate has never failed a USADA drug test herself and she has been tested a total of twelve times according to the USADA website.
Jones has claimed innocence for the second failed drug test, with teammate Frank Lester even going as far as to say that the whole situation is a conspiracy against the former champion.
The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is now awaiting punishment from both USADA and the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC). While the USADA punishment has no timeframe as far as when it’s going to be handed out, the CSAC is expected to issue their punishment next month.
