So we still don’t have an announced headline bout for UFC 230, an event that is taking place in six-and-a-half-weeks at Madison Square Garden.  What we do have, however, is rumour and conjecture, which enables me to put pieces of a puzzle I don’t possess together, to come to a conclusion that probably won’t happen.  Stay with me though, because if it does play out like I think it may, blimey, it raises a hell of a lot of questions.

On September 20th Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov will be in New York to attend a press conference to promote their upcoming fight.  Everybody knows, when Conor is in town, it demands attention, which means the presser is bound to have a lot of mainstream media coverage.  I can’t think of an opportunity as perfect as this to announce the main event of the card taking place in the very same city in a mere 45 days.

So, who’s actually fighting in this main event?  The latest gossip doing the rounds is Jon Jones will make his return in a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson.  Wait.  Isn’t Gustafsson injured and Jones suspended?  Precisely what I thought, so I set about finding out the facts.

Gustafsson was scheduled to fight Volkan Oezdemir in early August at UFC 227, a bout he pulled out of due to a ‘minor’ injury.  In the most recent interview of his, that I was able to find on YouTube, Gustafsson spoke with MMAViking.com and he confirmed he’s no longer injured and is aiming to return in October/November.  Perfect, one half of our rumoured main event is available.

Jon Jones is a bit more complicated.  He had a hearing with the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) in February this year.  He was fined, and his fighter’s license was revoked until he completes the suspension handed to him by USADA.  The problem is, USADA hasn’t publicly issued Jones with a suspension yet.

The flagged sample was taken from Jones after he weighed-in on July 28th 2017, a day before he beat Daniel Cormier to regain the Light Heavyweight Title, a result that was consequently overturned and Jones was stripped of the title. The start date of the pending suspension Jones is facing is the date of his flagged sample, so Jones has effectively already served nearly 14 months.

The question is, if the rumours of a Jones return are true, when will USADA announce the length of his suspension, how will they explain why it took so long for them to come to this conclusion, and most importantly, how did it miraculously manage to line-up so Jones is able to make his return at one of the biggest cards of the year?

The introduction of USADA, randomly testing fighters, has had a largely positive impact.  However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, ask Josh Barnett…

The main bone of contention is the lack of rhyme or reason behind the processes USADA follow.  Everything seems to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.  In theory, this is good as it allows for the nuances of each violation to be accounted for, enabling USADA to levy suspensions or indeed exonerate each fighter on merit.

In my humble opinion, where this approach falls down, however, is when the person in charge of developing the USADA testing program; Jeff Novitzky is employed by the UFC.  This is a clear conflict of interest.  It gives the UFC the ability to influence the USADA decision-making process, enabling them to affect the outcome of individual cases their fighters are involved in.  So in theory, if you’re in uncle Dana’s bad books, you get the maximum penalty for a violation.  If you’re a big draw at the box office, maybe they go easy with your punishment.

Obviously, I’m in no position to accuse the UFC of foul play, however, it was their decision to issue Brock Lesnar with an exemption from the requirement to be in the USADA testing pool for four months before taking a fight.  This enabled Lesnar to fight on the UFC 200 card at a month’s notice, and I’m sure you remember how that played out?

The precedent USADA has set is for someone in Jones’ position to be suspended for two years.  Call me cynical, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the UFC could influence USADA just enough so that one of their cash cow’s suspension fell short of the date of one of the biggest UFC cards of the year?

The premise of all this is all built off the rumours of Jon Jones returning at UFC 230.  This is something that hasn’t been confirmed yet.  If Jones’ return is made official in the coming days, however, it cast’s serious aspersions on the relationship between USADA and the UFC.