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After Jon Jones agreed to “snitch” for less punishment, is USADA aiming to investigate Greg Jackson?

By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2018

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USADA’s drug testing schedule and… creative… due process has created a riveting incentive for MMA fighters looking to make a living outside of UFC.

For UFC fighters caught in the USADA dragnet, blame-shifting and excuse-making is the only way to prolong your career. Ask Jon Jones.

Jon Jones has been given chance after chance to return to UFC after monumentally screwing up. He’s worth money to the right individuals. In the process of saving your bacon, people will get hurt. Iain Kidd at Bloody Elbow explains how the ‘Snitching’ clause led to UFC star Jon Jones’ significantly reduced USADA suspension.

“Snitching” on other fighters makes for good gossip but that vision is too limited in scope. Go for the gold by “snitching” on top MMA trainers and gym owners. That’s how you stroke the id of someone like former FDA and IRS agent Jeff Novitzky.

With UFC having its own Performance Institute, there’s an economic conflict of interest to be aggressive against veteran MMA trainers and gym rats. The potential for abusing USADA’s arbitrary and capricious process to target gyms is ripe. With Jeff Novitzky in charge, he has a mountain of Federal contacts he can contact at any time. His fiancee is currently a Federal agent. Novitzky is in a position of persuasiveness to get the ball rolling for a criminal indictment. Or if he’s charitable, at a minimum contact athletic commissions for a discussion or two.

If you’re currently a high profile MMA trainer and you have clients in the UFC, you are at risk of rightfully or wrongfully getting dragged in the mud at any time. USADA can target fighters in clusters at certain gyms whenever they want. That’s as good as attacking a trainer’s primary source of income. You’re at their mercy.

As Iain Kidd noted at Bloody Elbow:

The clause specifically states the reduction is given when the information results in USADA or another body discovering or bringing forward an offense/violation, so Jones just saying he heard this guy does steroids wouldn’t cut it. It almost certainly involved specific, detailed information about the use or supply of drugs.

Jones is required to continue to provide this information, or his suspension will be reinstated.

Jon Jones is a congenital bridge burner. His behavior will never change because there’s always someone willing to jump on the bandwagon to get a cut of a future UFC pay day. If Jon Jones makes allegations of drug usage by other fighters he’s associated with, USADA’s spotlight will focus on where Jon Jones has been training and who he has been training with.

Within this context, it is relevant to highlight Donald Cerrone’s recent claim to Joe Rogan that a wrestling coach at Greg Jackson’s gym used to sell steroids while working for a college. These remarks, truthful or not, create an avenue of investigation for USADA. Combine this development along with “substantial assistance” from Jon Jones and Greg Jackson becomes an investigative target. Cerrone’s comments are catnip to a former Federal investigator like Jeff Novitzky.

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical and wary about USADA targeting Greg Jackson for investigation. With Jon Jones reportedly utilizing USADA’s “snitching” clause, we will find out how far he’s willing to go to save his ass. Thanks to Jeff Novitzky’s tangled web of contacts with Federal agents & investigators, we will also find out how much of Jones’s claims to USADA end up being creatively protected by “litigation privilege” in order to kill defamation lawsuits from being filed against “snitchers.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

5 Responses to “After Jon Jones agreed to “snitch” for less punishment, is USADA aiming to investigate Greg Jackson?”

  1. Diaz's packed bowl says:

    “Jones is required to continue to provide this information, or his suspension will be reinstated.”
    Guess thats why JJ trains in his garage these days, since no one in their right mind would want a cheating actively employed snitch around them or their gym.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    I decided to listen to a few podcasts on the Jon Jones situation. I was baffled with what I heard. Luke Thomas says we should basically give up on expecting a clean sport. Ariel Helwani asked zero tough follow up questions of Jones’s manager. The general tone of the sport has completely shifted. Drawing power wins out.

    As somebody who consistantly listens to soccer podcasts, the contrast in the professionalism and standards is night and day. At one point MMA titles meant something and the fans expected some resemblance of a fair competition. Now, even the “journalists” care more about drawing power and “big fights” then they do of MMA being any type of sport.

    I would say at this point that MMA is worse than boxing in terms of corruption and illogical matchmaking.

  3. Diaz's packed bowl says:

    What makes no sense is… why is USADA requiring Jones to snitch on ped users if they claim he WAS NOT using peds?
    That in both cases it was completely accidentally ingested into his system and that Jones was totally clueless.

    However behind usada’s closed doors he is no longer clueless. And his testimony/knowledge of PED usage is extremely valuable to USADA. How is that “ignorance” parlayed into a 2.5 year reduction of their sentence?

    So this shows the Janus nature of USADA. With Novitki publicly stating he thinks Jones is innocent even when a 4 year suspension was handed to Jones initially.
    And continuing to support Jones innocence during an arbitration process in which Jones is obviously admitting wrongdoing.

    USADA is corrupt to the core, Jones found a great new friend with them.

  4. Chris says:

    After watching Icarus on Netflix about cycling and the Russian wada lab, I will never believe in clean sport again. It sucks, and I found my internal reasoning machine thinking “as long as the piss clean the night of the fight….”, And it’s wrong.

    Part of me about the snitching aspect has me thinking of ahealth clinic, a Genesis clinic, a Dr.Nick type character, whoever, or whatever practice he snitched on, wasn’t the one he uses or used before, it’ll be a clinic where all the Brazillians go, or a clinic in Florida that has designer treatments available.
    Snitch Jones didn’t flip on just one fellow fighter, or a coach at a gym, he flipped on someone bigger or something bigger than him.
    If anything, one could assume we ONLY heard of Jones’s deal and it took so long to come to a settlement because his information would have had to led to arrest, proof, not just smoke and mirrors with him screaming “these 5 people are cheaters!”

    If you Google steroid doctor bust. 3 articles come up for recent big bust/arrest.
    July 2018, a doctor in Florida.
    May 2018 had a NYC doctor busted for steroids, caught giving a script to an undercover leo.
    May 2018 had a central NJ doctor busted for steroids and 4 keys of pot, actually pled guilt in May.
    There’s no bigger fish in the UFC to catch other than Bones, if Snitch Jones did indeed provide material information that led to a prosecution and more, so it’s either Olympic sport, one of the big 4 sports, or something outside of the states which would seem illogical.

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