UFC fighters Daniel Rodriguez, Walt Harris and Mayra Bueno Silva have both been handed USADA suspensions after their recent positive drug-tests.
Back in August Rodriguez was pulled from an upcoming fight with Santiago Ponzinibbio the following month due to an atypical test result, and it’s now emerged that was due to having tested positive for the banned substance Ostarine.
As such the 36-year-old Rodriguez has now been suspended for 6 months and will be eligible to return to action on January 28th of next year.
It comes at a time when Rodriguez is coming off back-to-back losses, having been submitted by Neil Magny in November of last year, which ended a four-fight winning streak, and was then followed by a first round TKO loss against Ian Garry in May.
Meanwhile, heavyweight fighter Walt Harris has been hit with a 12-month ban after he tested positive for drostanolone, an illegal anabolic agent, in June, which had led to a fight with Josh Parisian in July being cancelled.
The 40-year-old Harris claimed at the time that he believed the positive test was due to a tainted supplement. Harris had provided that same reasoning several years earlier when he also tested positive for an anabolic agent, which on that occasion had led him to receive a reduced suspension of 4 months.
Harris’ new ban, which will enable him to compete again from June 24th of next year, comes at a time when he’s already been out of action for over two years since suffering three TKO losses in a row against Alistair Overeem, Alexander Volkov and Marcin Tybura.
As for Mayra Bueno Silva, she tested positive for ritalinic acid prior to her fight with Holly Holm, which was lead to a 4-and-a-half month suspension and her submission win in the fight being overturned to a no-contest.
When Silva was first flagged Silva declared that her positive test had been due to ADHD medication she takes, and while that’s been acknowledged, the fact that she hadn’t applied for a therapeutic use exemption meant she couldn’t avoid receiving some form of punishment.
Nevertheless, the 32-year-old has expressed her satisfaction that USADA have acknowledged she wasn’t taking the substance to gain a competitive advantage, and that she’ll be able to compete again from November 29th of this year as she looks to continue her current four-fight unbeaten run.
