UFC fighter Irina Alekseeva gained’t have to attend lengthy to be cleared to combat once more after the saga surrounding a failed drug take a look at lastly got here to a conclusion on Tuesday.
Throughout a month-to-month assembly with the Nevada Athletic Fee, Alekseeva acquired a one-year suspension after she examined constructive for elevated ranges of testosterone “in keeping with the administration of testosterone of exogenous origin” from a pattern collected all the best way again on June 21, 2023.
The fee made the one-year suspension retroactive to Oct. 14, 2023 primarily based on the date she was first notified concerning the take a look at failure. Alekseeva’s one-year suspension ends on Oct. 14 so she’ll be cleared to combat once more as early as Oct. 15.
She was additionally fined $157.04 by the fee for prosecution charges.
The unusual timing surrounding Alekseeva’s suspension comes after the Fight Sports activities Anti-Doping (CSAD) — the in-house governing physique overseeing the UFC’s anti-doping coverage — positioned blame on the US Anti-Doping Company (USADA) for delays in reporting the preliminary outcomes that really allowed the bantamweight fighter to compete after a failed drug take a look at.
“Alekseeva examined constructive for values in keeping with the administration of testosterone of exogenous origin in a urine pattern collected by the US Anti-Doping Company on June 21, 2023, whereas USADA was nonetheless the unbiased administrator of the UFC’s Anti-Doping Program (UFC ADP),” CSAD officers mentioned again in June. “Nonetheless, USADA did not report the outcomes of this pattern to her and to UFC till Oct. 31, 2023, greater than 4 months after the pattern was collected and after Alekseeva was allowed to compete in a UFC occasion in Las Vegas, NV, on Oct. 14, 2023.
“USADA collected two extra samples from Alekseeva earlier than her Oct. 14, 2023, combat, (Aug. 8, 2023, and Sept. 13, 2023) that have been each unfavourable. It ought to be famous that when CSAD took over the unbiased administrator position of UFC ADP from USADA on Dec. 31, 2023, it requested extra, extra particular testing of these two samples that USADA had not. The outcomes of this extra testing facilitated by CSAD have been unfavourable. Alekseeva was additionally examined by the Nevada Athletic Fee (NAC) on October 14, 2023, the date of her final UFC combat, and was unfavourable. All three of those subsequent unfavourable samples have been collected from Alekseeva earlier than she was knowledgeable of her June 21, 2023, constructive pattern.”
In the long run, CSAD suspended Alekseeva for one 12 months, which was additionally made retroactive to the day after her final combat within the UFC, which meant she could be eligible to return on or after Oct. 15.
Now the Nevada Athletic Fee has matched that very same punishment with Alekseeva cleared to return as soon as her suspension is lifted on Oct. 15.
The end in Alekseeva’s combat stays the identical as a result of she in the end misplaced a choice to Melissa Mullins, which dropped her UFC file to 1-1 general.
On the identical assembly on Tuesday, Bellator fighter JayJay Wilson was additionally handed a nine-month suspension after testing constructive for metenolone — an anabolic steroid — from out-of-competition drug take a look at. His suspension is ready to finish on Jan. 1, 2025 and he was additionally handed a $157.04 effective by the fee for prosecution charges.
