Ex-UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones faces a four-year suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for his second alleged anti-doping offense.

But his longtime manager is confident Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) is innocent and should be punished only with time already served.

“In my mind, he’s innocent – I know it for a fact,” Malki Kawa told MMAjunkie Radio. “So for me, there’s no way in the world these guys are going to punish him. I just don’t see how they do it. It would be an outrage to me if they suspended him longer.”

Kawa said he’s “95 percent” sure Jones will fight in 2018 and predicted his return would be big business, generating between 750,000 and 800,000 pay-per-view buys.

USADA doesn’t comment on pending cases, so the agency declined a request on Kawa’s remarks. Officially, Jones’ case is still pending during the results management process.

Jones’ anti-doping attorney, Howard Jacobs, said no date has been set for arbitration, a process that would be utilized if Jones’ team disputes USADA’s findings and wanted them reviewed by a neutral arbitrator. Jacobs declined further comment.

Jones has been benched since this past August when USADA announced a potential anti-doping violation stemming from his knockout win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 214. An in-competition test revealed the steroid turinabol in Jones’ urine; he also passed a blood test conducted on fight night. Two out-of-competition tests on July 6 and July 7 also came back clean.

The UFC stripped Jones of the title and reinstated Cormier after the “B” sample of Jones’ urine confirmed the initial positive and the California State Athletic Commission overturned his victory. Jones faces a separate punishment with the CSAC and is set for a hearing on Feb. 27.

“I’m expecting that USADA is also wrapped up (by that time),” Kawa said. “If it’s not wrapped up, I’m not sure if we push the (CSAC) hearing to March, or we still have the hearing and wait on USADA. From what I’m understanding, what USADA would like to do and we would like to do, is we’d like to have it all wrapped up by the CSAC hearing.”

Kawa indicated the circumstances around Jones’ second anti-doping violation mirror those of his first, when he claimed a supplement led to his positive test.

Jones was found with a pair of banned estrogen blockers prior to a title unifier with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200. During an arbitration hearing, USADA agreed the supplement was tainted. An arbitrator nevertheless found Jones was “reckless” in not doing his due diligence on the supplement and handed down a one-year suspension, the maximum amount of time allowed for a first offense with the substances in question.

Kawa claims there’s widespread agreement between the UFC and regulators that the levels of turinabol found in Jones’ system after UFC 214 don’t support intentional use, a theory recently backed by UFC anti-doping czar Jeff Novitzky.

“Looking at the information they have, from what they’ve gathered, from what they told me, it doesn’t make any sense,” Kawa said. “No one understands it. You passed this test, then you failed this test that you knew was coming, and then you passed one after that. And it was such a small amount that, it came from somewhere that we just don’t know where, and it was such a small amount that it’s obvious he wasn’t trying to cheat.

“So what USADA is looking at is, how do we move forward with this? To me, it’s very simple. He’s not guilty. You’re supposed to test guys to keep the sport clean. Did it give him an advantage? The answer is no. USADA will tell you this, and the UFC will tell you this.”

For complete coverage of UFC 214, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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