Jon Jones Debacle Shows Need for Trustworthy 3rd-Party Drug Testing

If the recent flap over Jon Jones' positive drug test has taught us anything at all, it's that the system is only as good as the people running it.

And right now, those people aren't doing much to inspire confidence.

From the Nevada State Athletic Commission's admission that it shouldn't even have tested Jones for cocaine on Dec. 4, to the curious idea that nobody told him he'd failed until after he fought at UFC 182, to initial uncertainty over whether Carbon Isotope Ratio tests were conducted to try to determine if Jones had also been using performance-enhancing drugs, the whole thing has been a comedy of errors—with MMA fans cast as the butt of the joke.

After a public meeting on Monday where the NSAC delighted in talk but ultimately declined to act, it's clear state regulators just aren't up to this challenge.

The UFC has already said it isn't, either, though with the last week's tomfoolery fresh in our minds, I'd urge the fight company to reconsider.

It's impossible to ignore the fact the Jones debacle began just four days after UFC President Dana White announced the organization will abandon plans to begin its own enhanced, year-round drug testing during 2015. Instead, White said the UFC will merely contribute additional funding to support existing commission testing.

Steve Marcus/Getty Images

"We have no business doing drug testing," White said, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Adam Hill. "That's what the commission is there to do."

As White delivered that news to a small group of reporters on Jan. 2, the UFC had already been told Jones flunked an NSAC test for the primary metabolite for cocaine, but White couldn't have known how badly the commission—one of the best, most influential in the country—would botch the fallout.

But it did, and right now, leaving enhanced drug testing solely in the hands of state athletic commissions seems like a pretty bad idea.

We applauded the NSAC last year for its increased efforts to turn up the heat on drug cheats. By now, however, we've come to understand that state-funded testing can't be the first and last line of defense.

Steve Marcus/Getty Images

This should not be a shocking revelation. Drug testing is hard, expensive and highly technical. The men and women who staff state athletic commissions are not experts on the subject anymore than White or UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta. They are local officials, not scientists, and like a lot of us, many of them are learning about this stuff as they go.

With apologies to these small, local regulatory bodies, the UFC remains better funded and better equipped to enact enhanced drug testing. The UFC doesn't function at the whim of state budgets, and it will always have better access to the independent contractors it employs to fight inside its eight-sided cage.

All it needs, really, is the expertise to pull it off.

Victor Fraile/Getty Images

White cited the company's recent testing-related dispute with middleweight Cung Le as a primary factor for scrapping the sweeping, year-round screening the UFC proffered last August. Originally, Le received a 12-month suspension for allegedly testing positive for elevated levels of human growth hormone, but when the fighter charged the organization with mishandling his test sample, the UFC withdrew the punishment.

In fairness, it was a pretty big screw-up, but is it the kind of thing that should scrap a whole program? Honestly, the two don't really even seem related, as Le's disputed test was collected during a routine post-fight exam following a loss to Michael Bisping. This wasn't the sort of heightened, out-of-competition testing that netted Jones or the kind of year-round testing the UFC appeared on the verge of starting just a few months ago.

Victor Fraile/Getty Images

In fact, aside from the fact Bisping requested both blood and urine testing after seeing a particularly muscular-looking photo of Le online, this was simply the run-of-the-mill testing the UFC has long handled on its own during international events. Unless the UFC plans to scrap all international regulatory efforts (which, we hope, it doesn't) then using Le as an example of the pitfalls of out-of-competition testing feels like apples and oranges.

Really, the confusion surrounding Le's test only reinforces a point most of us have made since the beginning: The UFC should absolutely conduct substantial internal year-round drug testing. It just shouldn't try to run the program all by itself.

Alex Trautwig/Getty Images

To really do this right, the UFC should partner with a respected, independent testing agency and let the experts handle the nuts and bolts of how it works. That might prevent further testing troubles like the one we saw the UFC make with Le. It might also provide additional expertise in dealing with difficult situations, like the one that engulfed Jones last week.

Is it a perfect solution? Probably not, but right now, it might be the only good solution.

Better, certainly, than throwing up our hands and collectively admitting defeat.