(via Getty)
In our recap of the best, worst, and most insane moments that MMA had to offer in 2015, we bestowed the Potato Award for “Worst Fight of the Year” to Gabriel Gonzaga and Konstantin Erokhin’s scrap (if you could call it that) at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale, writing:
For three endless, slogging rounds, Gonzaga and Erokhin circled, stared, circled, and stared at each other, seemingly too scared to engage while the 1,800 people in attendance showered (or perhaps sprinkled, considering how few of them there were) them with boos.
By the time the abysmal contest had wrapped up, the pair of heavyweights had combined for just 35 significant strikes in total, with Gonzaga’s 20 strikes (and 2 takedowns!) earning him the victory.
Truthfully, we cannot even begin to imagine how a fight could possibly be worse than the Gonzaga vs. Erokhin already was, but somehow, someway, recent developments have allowed us to downgrade it from “piss-poor” to “the absolute nadir of professional mixed martial arts.”
Details after the jump.
That’s because Erokhin, as it turns out, was on performance enhancing drugs during the contest. To steal a line from BloodyElbow’s Zane Simon, “I suppose it makes you wonder what aspect of the performance was ‘enhanced.’” MMAFighting has the deets:
Now, Erokhin’s drug test from the TUF Finale has come back positive. Erokhin popped for the anabolic steroid drostanolone in a pre-fight, in-competition test, according to documents obtained by MMA Fighting through a public records request with the Nevada Athletic Commission.
The Russian, who was removed from the UFC’s roster following the loss (his second straight since entering the promotion), will now be looking at a 9-month suspension from competition, at the minimum, as well as a fine that will almost surely negate whatever he received for the fight in the first place.
So in total, we have a terrible fight, a meaningless win, and another entry in our steroid bust timeline. What a shitshow.
The post The Worst Fight of 2015, Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Konstantin Erokhin, Somehow Just Got Worse appeared first on Cagepotato.