Kelvin Gastelum has taken a settlement offer to resolve a finding of marijuana metabolites in his system. As a result, he was docked 20 percent of his fight purse, suspended 90 days retroactive to his fight against Vitor Belfort in Brazil.
Gastelum KO’d Belfort in the first round this past March. His drug test sample that night was positive for Carboxy-Tetrahydrocannabonol (Carboxy-THC) that was above the 180 ng/mL allowance by WADA standards.
The Superior Tribunal de Justica Desportiva do MMA (STJDMMA) confirmed that Gastelum’s victory has been overturned and ruled in no contest. The Brazilian court worked with USADA and CABMMA to broker the settlement which likely means he will not receive an additional penalty from USADA.
As of Monday morning USADA has not produced an official statement on Gastelum.
Brazilian outlet Combate was the first to announce the settlement.
Payout Perspective:
Gastelum has stated that he will no longer accept fights in Brazil. Obviously, paying for training camp to fly to Brazil and then getting fined 20% of your fight purse would do that to a fighter. He was originally scheduled to face Anderson Silva in Brazil this June but was taken off the card when the positive drug test came out. The 90 day suspension is almost up for Gastelum so that’s good news for him.
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