One of the most interesting details to come out of Jon Jones’ USADA arbitration hearing is that the ‘dick pill’ that caused him to fail his June 16th drug test was supplied by his teammate, Eric Blasich.
Blasich’s Linkedin profile states that he has trained at JacksonWink MMA and is a NYS Muay Thai kickboxing champion and International Muay Thai kickboxing champion. He has also competed in amateur MMA, holding a 1-0-0 record according to his profile on Mixedmartialarts.com.
Blasich signed a declaration under penalty of perjury about the series of events that led to him supplying Jones with the tainted tadalafil, but USADA general counsel William Bock, III picked several holes in his story at the arbitration hearing.
The written declaration claimed Jones and Blasich were having dinner with teammates, plural, on the night Blasich supplied Jones with the substance. In the oral evidence, only one other person was present; their coach, “Izzy” – presumably referring to Jackson Wink wrestling coach Israel “Izzy” Martinez.
In the written evidence, Blasich claimed he ordered the pills from All American Peptide, but in oral evidence claimed it was an unnamed friend who ordered them.
Blasich also said in his declaration that the tainted pill he provided to Jones was from an order on May 25th, 2016, and provided an invoice from this date. He then accepted this couldn’t be the source of the pills he provided to Jones, since the pills were delivered to New York, but Blasich had already left New York for Albuquerque by that point.
Perhaps most damning of all is that when Blasich finally provided the correct invoice for the order of “tadalafil”, it also contained an order for clomiphene – a substance banned by WADA and available only with a prescription in the United States.
The panel noted that the written declarations of Blasich and Jones appeared to have been co-ordinated by Jones’ agent Malki Kawa, and noted that the declarations differed significantly from the oral evidence, stating, “Neither declaration whose drafting appears to have been co-ordinated by Malki Kawa, referred to anything like the detail of their oral statements which were themselves not wholly consistent as to what happened, where and when, on the evening in question”
USADA general counsel Mr. Bock went as far as to suggest that “the whole story told by the protagonists lacked the clear ring of truth and had rather the indistinct sound of contrivance.”
The arbitration panel nonetheless concluded that the cause of Jones’ failed test was indeed the tainted “tadalafil” pill, and not deliberately ingested clomiphene. Even so – as noted in Iain Kidd’s detailed breakdown of how the panel reached their decision – the panel found Jones at fault for the failure, and even said his degree of fault “verged on reckless.”
This should be a wake up call for all UFC athletes – due diligence extends far beyond taking a teammates word that the pill they’re giving you is OK for you to take. This ruling makes it clear that fighters need to – at the bare minimum – research the source of any medication or supplement they ingest, as well as the ingredients on the label, and relying on your agent to do it for you won’t cut it.
