It appears that the Netherlands anti-doping authority is investigating a few GLORY kickboxers for drug test irregularities.
According to a story from Dutch outlet Nieuwsuur, a few prominent kickboxers allegedly failed drug tests administered by the Netherlands anti-doping agency in 2017 and 2018. They all participated in GLORY kickboxing events in those years, and are facing up to four-year suspensions.
The two fighters with the biggest names would be Badr Hari and Hesdy Gerges, who fought each other at GLORY 45 in March 2018. The other two are Brazilian Ariel Machado and Croatian Mladen Brestovac.
While the linked article is in Dutch, here is an explanation of what it entails in English:
Badr Hari, Hesdy Gerges, Mladen Brestovac and Ariel Machado have been flagged for potential post-fight drug testing failures, per NPO 1. Cases still pending.
— Kris Dekker (@KrisDekkerMMA) January 28, 2019
Brestovac said he received a letter from the Dutch doping autority, but didn’t understand it because it was written in Dutch, per Nieuwsuur.
GLORY, Hari and Machado declined to comment. Gerges was not in touch when Nieuwsuur asked for a response on Thursday because he’s in Asia.
— Kris Dekker (@KrisDekkerMMA) January 28, 2019
More on the Hari and Gerges cases tonight at 10 PM CET on Nieuwsuur. Also more details about GLORY and their collaboration with the Dutch doping authority, which ended after the contracts expired last year. https://t.co/QJQhAb8B24
— Kris Dekker (@KrisDekkerMMA) January 28, 2019
While it’s still unclear when the flagged drug tests were administered, Gerges and Hari haven’t fought since their GLORY 51 bout, which Hari won by unanimous decision. Brestovac last competed in the promotion at GLORY 54, where he dropped a decision to Rico Verhoeven. He has fought once outside the organization since then, an October win in FFC in Vegas. Machado hasn’t competed since 2017.
It appears that the fighters will submit statements to the commission overseeing things in the coming weeks, though as mentioned in the tweets, not all the fighters are actually clear about the circumstances surrounding the cases. More information regarding this issues should come to light soon enough.