Kelvin Gastelum flagged by USADA, pulled from Anderson Silva bout at UFC 212
Surging UFC middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum will no longer be fighting MMA legend Anderson “The Spider” Silva at June’s UFC 212 pay-per-view event in Brazil.
News just broke that Gastelum has been flagged for potentially testing positive for marijuana metabolites stemming from an in-competition drug test conducted by USADA (via MMAFighting).
The drug test was apparently collected in conjunction with Gastelum’s victory over Vitor Belfort, which came at last month’s UFC Fight Night 106 event in Brazil.
With his decimation of Belfort, Gastelum moved to 2-0 since returning to the middleweight division. In his first fight back in this division, he mauled the recently retired Tim Kennedy to a similarly decisive end. He is now 14-2 in sum, with both of his losses coming via controversial split decisions to Tyron Woodley and Neil Magny.
Silva, meanwhile, recently re-entered the middleweight contendership picture with a controversial decision defeat of Derek Brunson. This win was his first since a 2012 light heavyweight defeat of Stefan Bonnar. Prior to this defeat of Brunson, Silva lost decisions to Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping, and a pair of fights to Chris Weidman. These losses were split by a no-contest with Nick Diaz, which was initially a decision win for Silva, but was eventually overturned when Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites and Silva tested positive for several more serious banned substances. The middleweight legend is 34-8 in sum.
Members of Silva’s camp told Ariel Helwani that the former UFC middleweight kingpin, Silva, is still hopeful to remain on the UFC 212 card which takes place June 3 at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The UFC issued the following statement on the subject:
The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) informed Kelvin Gastelum of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation involving Carboxy-Tetrahydrocannabinol (“Carboxy-THC”) which is a metabolite of marijuana and/or hashish, above the decision limit of 180 ng/mL, stemming from an in-competition sample collected in conjunction with his recent bout in Fortaleza, Brazil on March 11, 2017.
USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case involving Gastelum, as it relates to the UFC Anti-Doping Policy and future UFC participation. Because the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) was the regulatory body overseeing the fight in Fortaleza and has licensing jurisdiction over Gastelum, USADA will work to ensure that the Commission has the necessary information to determine its proper judgment of Gastelum’s potential anti-doping violation. Additional information will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.
As a result of the potential anti-doping violation against Gastelum, USADA has placed him under a provisional suspension. While the UFC Anti-Doping Policy affords Gastelum full and fair due process rights before any possible adjudication of his case, because of the proximity to Gastelum’s scheduled June 3rd bout against Anderson Silva, Gastelum is being removed from the card and a replacement is currently being sought.
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