Jones wants Cormier no-contest overturned after UFC cuts ties with USADA

Jon Jones hasn't forgotten about his no-contest against Daniel Cormier - and he wants it reversed.

The UFC heavyweight champion reacted positively to Wednesday's news that the UFC will split from USADA, its anti-doping partner of the last eight years, in January 2024.

Jones was suspended for failed drug tests twice during the USADA era. He tweeted that his 2017 rematch against Cormier at UFC 214 should be reinstated as a knockout win.

"Man, I survived USADA," Jones wrote Thursday. "First they said I was guilty of having picograms, then they considered me innocent, next picograms became legal. Guess what: I'm still here, still unbeaten.

"That BS no-contest over DC needs to be taken off my record."

Jones knocked out Cormier to win the UFC light heavyweight title in July 2017, but the victory was overturned to a no-contest when the 36-year-old tested positive for the anabolic steroid turinabol in a pre-fight drug test. Cormier was reinstated as light heavyweight champion. USADA suspended Jones for 15 months but determined he didn't knowingly take a banned substance.

A year later, a trace amount of the same substance was found in Jones' system ahead of a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson. The amount was measurable in picograms - one-trillionth of a gram - which is what Jones referred to in his tweet. The California State Athletic Commission found no evidence that Jones re-administered the steroid. USADA has since increased its testing thresholds for certain drugs, and Jones would not have been suspended in 2017 under the current rules.

USADA first suspended Jones for one year in 2016 after he tested positive for clomiphene and letrozole prior to a scheduled bout at UFC 200. The anti-doping agency ruled that Jones took a contaminated sex pill, which led to the positive result.

"I've never cheated this sport, and I will stand by that until the day I die," Jones wrote.

His no-contest against Cormier is one of two results preventing Jones from having a spotless professional MMA record. The other is a 2009 disqualification loss due to illegal elbows that UFC president Dana White has argued should be reversed.

Jones, arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time, reigned over the light heavyweight division for years. He is scheduled to defend his heavyweight title for the first time against former champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 on Nov. 11 in New York.