Carina Damm, the sister and training partner of UFC’s Rodrigo Damm, was suspended for six months and fined $550 by the Ohio Athletic Commission for allegedly submitting a fake urine sample before her loss to Jessica “Evil” Eye on a North American Allied Fight Series (NAAFS) show on June 1 in Cleveland, according to MMA Rising.
This would be the second time Damm has been suspended based on a drug test. She had tested positive for the steroid Nandrolone (Decadurabolin) by the California State Athletic Commission, stemming from an April 3, 2008, fight in Los Angeles. She was suspended for one year at that time, although during that year she fought twice in Brazil, and didn’t fight again in the U.S. until Aug. 13, 2010.
Damm, 33, who is married to former Bellator fighter Luis Santos, lost the fight to Eye via decision. The news first broke based on a Twitter post on Thursday from Eye, who wrote, “So as you all know, I am a big advocate against PED and proudly say I’ll never do them. Unfortunately for my last opponent, she was not.”
Ohio commission Executive Director Bernie Profato told MMARising.com that Damm’s urine test turned out not to be urine.
“For the chain of command here, we have one woman inspector,” he said. “We really need to get women to go in there (to monitor providing the sample), so we had someone who was not an employee of the state, but was an unbiased person who had worked for another promotional company. Her statement to me for the chain of custody was that they went in there and she heard (Damm leaving a sample) into the toilet, which didn’t make any sense, but Damm took the cup and put it on the counter. That person then got the cup, and our doctor was waiting right outside the door and she handed it to the doctor. He sealed it, labeled it and took it over to me. I took it to the lab and released it to them. It was sent to the laboratory for testing. There has to be certain elements in order for it to be considered urine and those elements were not in it. So what we suspended her for is for failing to provide a urine or blood sample. Even the doctor,when he first handed the sample to me, he said, `I’m not a lab person, but two things here. One, this is kind of clear, and two, it’s cold.”
Damm (18-9), fought this past Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, winning in 49 seconds via TKO over Jessica Suelen, before the suspension was announced. She is also scheduled for another fight in Brazil on July 13. It will be interesting to see if she is allowed to fight in Brazil based on an American commission suspension, as she was in 2008 before Brazil had a commission.
Damm can appeal the suspension at a hearing in Ohio on Aug. 13.