Chad Mendes had a bad 2015, and it seems 2016’s not going his way either.
It was revealed Friday night that Mendes was flagged for a potential violation of the USADA drug testing policy, and though the exact nature of the failure isn’t known he’ll be facing up to a two year sanction from the UFC’s partner agency.
The UFC released the following statement on Friday night:
The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Chad Mendes of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection.
USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case. It is important to note that, under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full and fair review process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed. Additional information will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.
Mendes has been out of action since December, where he was knocked out by Frankie Edgar at UFC 194. That came six months after his TKO loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 189.
Penick’s Analysis: This is a somewhat surprising test failure, though without knowing what the substance was for which he tested positive it’s hard to comment beyond that. Accusations get thrown out against fighters all the time, and Mendes’ body type has brought similar murmurs during his run, so if it’s a PED failure rather than some other type of drug that might embolden some to comment further on that end. We’ll find out eventually, but he’ll have his opportunity at a defense to potentially shorten his sanction as we’ve seen with fighters like Yoel Romero and Tim Means.
[Photo (c) Joe Camporeale via USA Today Sports]
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