UFC Title Contender Is Popped For Potential USADA Drug Test Violation
A major title fight may very well not be in the plans for the UFC now, as one of their top middleweight fighters could be facing a big-time suspension.
Yoel Romero, who turns 39 this year, is under heavy scrutiny as the UFC announced that they were told by the US Anti-Doping Agency that Romero may have violated their policies coming from a sample collected from Romero out of competition.
USADA took over drug testing responsibilities from the UFC on July 1, 2015, but it only took full effect on January 1. The company will handle the punishment and results in relation to the case independently of the UFC.
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No drug was named in the statement released by UFC, but a fighter is allowed to appeal the test results and request that a second sample be tested before a punishment can be delivered by USADA.
Yoel Romero was expected to face UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold later this year for the title, which won't happen if a suspension occurs. Romero knocked off top 10 middleweights Lyoto Machida, Jacare Souza and Tim Kennedy since 2014.
For non-MMA fans, the Cuban Romero is perhaps best known for his confusing "gay Jesus" promo, which you can see above.
In an odd twist, Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic, who retired last year and admitted that he took an HGH injection, did not fail his drug test. USADA decided to uphold the suspension, as admitting guilt is also a violation.
777 contributed to this article.