Kelvin Gastelum’s TKO victory over Vitor Belfort at UFC Fight Night 106 in March has been overturned to a ‘No Contest’ ruling due to the star testing positive for marijuana metabolites on the day of the event in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The Brazilian Superior Justice Court Of MMA handed down the amendment to the fight verdict as well as suspending Gastelum for 90 days and fining him 20% of his purse.
“Marcelo Sedlmayer Jorge, president of the Superior Sports Justice Court – MMA and the entity’s attorney (Emmanuel Guedes Ferreira), in a joint effort with CABMMA, represented by Cristiano Sampaio, have formalized an agreement with the athlete Kelvin Gastelum, his lawyers and USADA,” The Brazilian commission confirmed in a statement to MMAJunkie.
“The athlete has officially confessed to the use of the Carboxy-THC substance, has publicly apologized. The athlete makes a commitment not to break any other norm of the sport, under risk of aggravated penalties due to repeated offense.”
It’s believed that the UFC’s anti-doping agency USADA won’t be handing Gastelum any additional punishment.
“Suspension accepted, but i will NEVER fight in Brazil again,” Gastelums stated on Twitter after the verdict was announced. “All they want is $$$$”
Gastelum had been scheduled to fight Anderson Silva at UFC 112 on June 3rd, but that fight was scrapped after news of his failed drug test first emerged.
He will now be eligible to compete again from June 11th, and in the past week he indicated that his preference would now be to fight Silva on the UFC On FOX 25 card, which takes place in New York on July 22nd.
