If you cast your mind back to before news first broke regarding Jose Aldo’s rib injury you may recall that the featherweight champion had another controversial moment that threatened to put the fight in jeopardy when his camp had a run in with a drug testing official at the Nova Uniao gym in Brazil.
Ben Mosier from Drug Free Sport showed up at Aldo’s training camp in mid-June claiming to be working on behalf of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and took a urine sample from the fighter as part of a random drugs test.
However, Aldo’s camp became suspicious of Mosier and so his coach Andre Pederneiras called up the police and the official Brazilian MMA Commission (CABMMA) who then showed up at the gym to see for themselves what was happening.
As a result of that it was decided that Mosier did not have a visa to be working in Brazil and so the urine sample was discarded and the drug-testing official was told to leave the country. Aldo was then tested again the following day by a different WADA accredited tester alongside a CABMMA official.
Fast forward back to the present day and Drug Free Sport have just issued a statement denying any wrongdoing and declaring that Mosier did in fact have a Visa to work in Brazil.
Read DFS’s full statement below.
“In early June 2015, Drug Free Sport was engaged by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (“NSAC”) to conduct a single urine test for an athlete in Brazil. Drug Free Sport’s preparation and execution of the testing event in Brazil complied with ethical best practices in anti-doping collections. Proper work visa applications detailing Drug Free Sport’s job functions were submitted to the Brazilian Consulate in Chicago, Illinois on June 18, 2012, and a ten year work visa was issued by the Consulate and relied upon by the Drug Free Sport collector in subsequent testing events. Drug Free Sport does not comment on client program specifics related to any collection event, but the NSAC, the UFC and Drug Free Sport were diligent in their effort to ensure a fair and ethical collection event in Brazil.”
We’ll never know what the result of that urine test by Mosier would have been, but if Aldo failed the test he took a day later it would become a matter for public record in due course even though the fighter has since pulled out of the fight due to the broken rib he suffered later on that month.
However, NSAC exec Bob Bennett has speculated that if Aldo had failed his test it would likely already have been known.
