Kimbo Slice has reached an agreement with the Texas athletic commission following a drug test failure earlier this year.
Unlike virtually every other athletic commission in North America, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation doesn’t punish people who fail PED drug tests very harshly. That might even be an understatement – after all, the first offense penalty is generally a 90-day suspension and a $2500 dollar fine. Compare that to Nevada or California, where you can get up to two years on the sidelines for a first offense, and you can easily see the difference.
So I guess Kimbo Slice should be fortunate that Bellator 149 took place in The Lone Star State.
Slice, who picked up an ugly TKO win over Dada 5000 at the Houston event in February, tested positive for anabolic steroid nandrolone post-fight, and was also flagged for a high T:E ratio. Today (via MMA Junkie), we learned that Slice has come to a settlement with the commission regarding his penalty
He will pay the $2500 fine, and give up his Texas fighting license. That license is set to expire on March 4th, 2017.
Kimbo already had another bout lined up – a rematch with James Thompson – but it didn’t matter anyway because that bout will take place in England and will be overseen by the International Sport Karate Association. That means that, while most North American commissions will honor the suspensions of one another, generally international commissions will not so the outcome of this deal with Texas had no bearing on that.
Slice/Thompson 2 will headline a card in the O2 Arena in London at Bellator 158 on July 16th.