Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has been flagged by USADA for a potential anti-doping violation.
As a result, the 33-year-old Brazilian has been removed from his upcoming fight with Francis Ngannou at UFC 215 in Alberta, Canada on September 9th.
After the new first broke, Dos Santos’ representative spoke out about the issue and revealed that a banned diuretic was to blame for his positive test.
“Junior tested positive for a substance called Hydrochlorothiazide, which is a diuretic and is banned by USADA due to its use as a masking agent,” the fighters rep, Ana Claudia Guedes told MMAjunkie. “We do not know where this substance came from. Junior has had his blood and urine randomnly tested many times and has never once tested positive for a banned substance.
We requested testing of his B sample today. Most times, the B sample will show the identical results as the A sample. Therefore, we are already working on analyzing his nutritional supplements and medications to determine whether anything might have been contaminated. Jeff Novitzky and Donna Marcolini of the UFC have provided the guidance for this process, and we are grateful to them for their professionalism and competence.
Junior remains committed to and supportive of USADA drug testing – even if he is bearing an unfortunate consequence of it. He spoke personally with Francis Ngannou and apologized for the unintended consequence to him. Junior thanks Francis for the sympathy, understanding, and respect that transpired during their call, and very much looks forward to resolving this situation so that he and Francis can set up a new date to face one another.”
