The UFC’s anti-doping partner USADA has announced resolutions to four cases of UFC athletes testing positive for a banned substance.
Sean O’Malley, Nicco Montano, Marvin Vettori and Augusto Mendes all tested positive for the banned Ostarine last year, and all four have accepted a six month suspension from the agency for their infraction.
O’Malley’s suspension started on September 19, 2018, meaning he is eligible to compete already. Meanwhile, Montano’s suspension commenced on November 15, 2018, Vettori’s on August 24, 2018 and Mendes on March 20, 2018. It’s worth noting Mendes is no longer in the UFC.
While O’Malley, Vettori and Mendes all went public with their infractions (and all denied knowingly taking the drug), today is the first revelation that former UFC strawweight champion Montano had been affected.
According to USADA, all of the aforementioned athletes showed signs of consuming the drug via contaminated supplements — something Ostarine is frequently linked with. A press release sent out Tuesday included:
“USADA has resolved the following cases, after conducting a thorough investigation and finding no evidence of intentional use, consistent with other supplement contamination cases:
“Augusto Mendes, 36, of Glendale, Ariz., tested positive for ostarine following an out-of-competition test conducted on March 7, 2018. He accepted a six-month period of ineligibility that began on March 20, 2018, the date he was provisionally suspended from competition.
“Marvin Vettori, 25, of Mezzocorona, Italy, tested positive for ostarine following an out-of-competition test conducted on August 24, 2018. He accepted a six-month period of ineligibility that began on August 24, 2018, the date he was provisionally suspended from competition.
“Sean O’Malley, 24, of Phoenix, Ariz., tested positive for ostarine following out-of-competition tests conducted on September 5, 2018 and December 8, 2018. His two positives were treated as a single, first violation because the amount of ostarine in both samples is consistent with ingestion prior to September 5, 2018. He accepted a six-month period of ineligibility that began on September 19, 2018, the date he was provisionally suspended from competition.
“Nicco Montano, 30, of Albuquerque, N.M., tested positive for ostarine following an out-of-competition test conducted on October 25, 2018. She accepted a six-month period of ineligibility that began on November 15, 2018, the date she was provisionally suspended from competition.”