Outside Source
Just one day after news broke that Fabricio Werdum would be headlining the UFC’s debut in Russia, the former UFC heavyweight champion is in hot water with USADA.
Werdum failed a USADA out-of-competition drug test, stemming from a sample collected April 25, the UFC announced Tuesday. He is facing a UFC anti-doping violation. The substance that he tested positive for was not released, per policy.
On Monday, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported that Werdum would face Alexey Oleynik in the UFC Moscow main event in September. It is unclear if that will happen now and that was not addressed in the UFC release, likely because the promotion never officially announced that bout.
Werdum’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz told MMA Fighting that the UFC has not informed Werdum nor his team that the bout with Olyenik is off. He added that Werdum “did not take anything illegal.”
“The entire UFC staff and I are all working together to solve this problem,” Abdel-Aziz said. “I’m very confident it will be OK. … It’s a misunderstanding. Something is off. Fabricio did not take anything illegal.”
Werdum (23-8-1) is coming off a fourth-round knockout loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC London in March. The Brazilian fighter came into that winning two in a row and three of his last four. Werdum, 40, would have put himself on the short list of potential title contenders had he beaten Volkov.
“Vai Cavalo” won the UFC heavyweight belt by third-round submission over Cain Velasquez in 2015. He dropped the title to Stipe Miocic a year later.
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
