UFC lightweight Felipe Olivieri was flagged by USADA for a pre-fight drug test related to his fight at UFC on Fox 18 this past January.
Olivieri passed a post-fight drug test after he defeated Tony Martin at the UFC event in New Jersey. However, a pre-fight test returned a positive result according to USADA.
UFC released a statement related to Olivieri’s positive test. It reads, in part:
The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Felipe Olivieri of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection. Although the sample collected from Olivieri following his bout at UFC Fight Night: Johnson vs. Bader on January 30, 2016, was reported as negative for prohibited substances, a sample collected from him in Brazil earlier that month, and analyzed at the WADA accredited laboratory in Rio de Janeiro, was recently reported to USADA as containing a prohibited substance.
Fighters flagged by UFC Anti-Doping Policy
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic – banned 2 years for out-of-competition use of hGH
Gleison Tibau – banned 2 years for out-of-competition use of EPO
Felipe Olivieri
So far this year, 262 athletes have been tested and USADA has administered 388 tests.
Payout Perspective:
The finding is exactly the reason why the UFC is working with USADA. If not for the out-of-competition drug test, Olivieri would likely have been able to use a prohibited substance and not been caught. We will see if Olivieri will appeal the result. At this time, no fighter has appealed a USADA decision although Yoel Romero stated that he planned to appeal his drug test failure.
It’s one thing to use peds in a game like baseball or cycling where nobody can get hurt, it’s another for it to be so common in combat sports where people’s lives are at risk. Mma and boxing should make it an automatic 5 year ban if someone test positive.
As I predicted, another mma fighter comes up hot in a test. Agreed Fight Fan, automatic 5 year ban should do the trick, and if it doesnt, either way, it cancels out the cheaters. You are exactly right, lives are at stake here. These are not sports you “play”…..
Vada and 365 days random is the solution
Testing is 365 at random. Let me know when anyone else other than the Olympics and cycling come up with a more comprehensive approach to cracking down on ped use.
Why do we have to let you know? Obviously the sport has a problem
You should investigate what rhetoric is.
The sport does have a problem, just like all other major sports have a problem including boxing.
It would have been interested to see the tests out of Pride, which was clearly a steroid/HGH haven
So he still fought? Kinda defeats the purpose of out of competition testing.