Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos has been handed a one-year suspension by the USA Anti-Doping Company, in line with his crew.
The UFC welterweight failed an out-of-competition drug check for ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) which is prohibited always, on April 8 and thus has been suspended by USADA – the UFC’s anti-doping companion.
Zaleski dos Santos’ supervisor Tiago Okamura confirmed the information to MMA Junkie after being first reported by MMA Preventing.
Zaleski dos Santos’ crew denies any intentional wrongdoing and claims the drug check failure got here from a tainted complement. They stated they acquired the suspected dietary supplements independently examined by a licensed lab in Brazil. One of many dietary supplements got here again constructive for ostarine, which they then communicated to USADA.
The pharmacy that makes the dietary supplements denied any compounding of ostarine regardless of the constructive end result, and Zaleski dos Santos’ crew weren’t capable of get lowered the suspension with USADA. Based on Okamura, Zaleski dos Santos didn’t get the usual two-year suspension for first-time violators, as ostarine contamination in dietary supplements is quite common.
Zaleski dos Santos joins a protracted record of UFC fighters who’ve examined constructive for ostarine together with Sean O’Malley, Marvin Vettori, Amanda Ribas, Marc-Andre Barriault, Tom Lawlor, and others.
The failed drug check pressured the Brazilian to withdraw from a bout in opposition to Mounir Lazzez that was scheduled to go down at UFC on ESPN 34 on April 16 in Las Vegas. Lazzez went on to defeat short-notice alternative Ange Loosa by unanimous resolution.
Zaleski dos Santos has been competing within the UFC since 2015. That is the primary time the Brazilian fails a drug check in his seven-year run within the firm. The 35-year-old is eligible to return to competitors on April 8, 2023.
Under is Okamura’s full assertion:
“On April eighth,2022 Elizeu Zaleski was contacted by USADA about an adversarial discovering in an out-of-competition urine check he had given on march 14th. The pattern had proven traces of Ostarine underneath 1 ng/ml which may point out contamination on some dietary supplements Elizeu had used beforehand.
Going through a 1-year suspension for one thing we knew he had not achieved we began speaking to USADA and the UFC (Jeff Novitzky and Donna Marcolini) in regards to the case and what could possibly be achieved to get a greater understanding of the place the consumption of Ostarine may have come from. As soon as the B Pattern was examined and had the identical end result it was sure that there was no mistake, one way or the other Ostarine had gotten into Elizeu´s system and we wanted to learn how. Elizeu has been within the USADA system since he first entered the UFC, 7 years in the past, and he has by no means examined constructive for something, he has all the time been a mannequin athlete relating to USADA compliance. So the constructive check got here as a shock to all of us, and we knew one thing will need to have occurred since him knowingly taking Ostarine didn’t make sense.
Going by his dietary supplements we discovered 3 that might have contamination, 2 compound ones, and 1 that was not licensed. Elizeu nonetheless had some left on the unique packaging of all 3 they usually had been despatched to the accredited lab in Rio de Janeiro for testing. After a couple of weeks, we had the information we had been hoping for, in one of many compound dietary supplements traces of Ostarine had been discovered. At that second we had been relieved, anticipating that the constructive end result was all we wanted to clear Elizeu out of this case. However sadly, that was not the case. After the end result, USADA contacted the Pharmacy, Elizeu, and the physician who had prescribed the compound dietary supplements. The talks with Elizeu and the physician went as anticipated however the Pharmacy denied compounding ostarine and later questioned the examined pattern and even the packaging it was despatched to the lab in.
With the Pharmacy denying the outcomes and the very fact they combined ostarine we got here to a standstill, Elizeu´s and the Physician’s phrase in opposition to the Pharmacy´s phrase. Sadly, there is no such thing as a cause for the Pharmacy to confess their mistake to USADA since they don’t have any jurisdiction over any Brazilian pharmacy and particularly as a result of Ostarine is not a authorized substance and its compounding has been prohibited by ANVISA (Brazilian Well being Regulatory Company). After nearly 6 months of preventing to clear his title with USADA and cut back his suspension, we are actually caught. We did all the pieces that was requested however we can not make the pharmacy comply.
Elizeu is now going through a 12 months with out competing and incomes due to this contamination and despite the fact that we’d have misplaced the battle within the USADA system we’ll now transfer the battle to a different subject as somebody must be responsibilized for this error and the influence it’s having in Elizeu´s life and profession.”
