UFC 244: Nate Diaz gets Jon Jones’ support after positive test – ‘I know you feel set up’

Jon Jones has tweeted his support for Nate Diaz following his positive drug test for tainted supplements.

Diaz posted an angry statement on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he was out of the UFC 244 main event at Madison Square Garden on November 2.

The Stockton native said he tested with elevated levels but protested his innocence – something UFC light heavyweight champion Jones knows all about.

“And just like that, years of hard work discredited overnight, with one phone call,” Jones wrote in a tweet, quoting Diaz’s own tweet which contained his explosive statement.

“I know you feel like someone is setting you up, that’s exactly how I felt,” Jones added in another tweet, without directly addressing Diaz.

Jones has had several run-ins himself with Usada, the UFC’s anti-doping body. He was taken off UFC 200 from his main event against Daniel Cormier in 2016 following a doping violation in an out-of-competition test. After serving a year-long suspension, he returned in 2017 to beat Cormier and regain his light heavyweight title, but saw the result overturned to a no contest after testing positive for Turinabol.

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“At times it’s going to feel like a pretty hopeless situation but maybe it’s not, you can’t just give up and do nothing,” Jones added. “This is a different type of fight man, you owe it to your fans to fight it.”

Jones returned last December after an independent arbitrator issued him a 15-month suspension, winning the vacant 205-pound title against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232. But that event had to be relocated a week out from Las Vegas to Anaheim, California, after Jones tested positive for traces of the same M3 metabolite.

It was determined Jones did not re-administer the drug, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission was not able to review the findings and grant Jones a license in time to fight in Vegas the next weekend.