It seems as if the Nevada State Athletic Commission is testing to make sure none of the bad blood between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier has led to bad blood within the champion himself.
Jones, who is currently training for his eighth straight title defense against Cormier at UFC 182, was paid a random visit by the NSAC to conduct a random drug test, according to Jones' Instagram account.
Jones' photo caption read:
"The Nevada State athletic commission just stopped by my house and hit me with that random.. Only thing I'm on is that #PHW pure hard work! They are probably wondering how my chicken legs are so strong. I've had a few @muscletech products but that's all legal :)"
It's likely Cormier gets tested before the fight as well. Considering the former United States Olympian was comfortable with being tested before, seeing his reaction to the UFC and the athletic commissions taking a firmer stand against performance-enhancing drug use wasn't very surprising.
Random drug testing.......awesome. Just like the Olympics. @BrianStann it's working :)
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) August 7, 2014
As far as Jones has publicly admitted, this is the second straight title defense in which he's been tested—the first coming during his UFC 172 training camp for his bout against now-No. 6 light heavyweight Glover Teixeira.
The champ went out of his way to publicly request the test the first time around, claiming a hunger for more transparency in his title fights. He told Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight (h/t MMAJunkie.com) back in April:
It was something me and my management team asked for several months ago. We thought it would be great to make sure everyone was playing fair in this fight. I'm not accusing my opponent of anything, but it'd just be great to see. ... I just think it'd be great to know that the athletes that are competing are competing clean. I've never taken any kind of performance-enhancing drug and I don't think any of my opponents should. I know that I've probably fought people in the past that have, and I've still come up with a way to win, but I just think it's important that it goes away.
Jones and Cormier will take the center of the Octagon on Jan. 3 in Las Vegas.
Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report MMA. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University's student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.
