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Texas’ commission did not handle this well.
Tito Ortiz’s win over Alberto Del Rio at Combate Americas: Tito vs. Alberto that was changed to a no contest has been restored.
On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) changed the result of the fight pending a further investigation. A statement the TDLR released to MMA Junkie revealed the investigation was to try work out if a “potentially disqualifying substance” that appeared in Ortiz’s urine sample was prescribed by a physician or not.
“A urine sample provided by Jacob ‘Tito’ Christopher Ortiz on Dec. 7, 2019, at the Combate Americas MMA event showed a potentially disqualifying substance that Ortiz claimed was prescribed by a physician,” the statement read. “Pending the outcome of the TDLR inquiry into whether the substance was indeed prescribed by a physician, TDLR marked the fight results as ‘No Contest.’ TDLR confirmed with the physician that the item was prescribed to Ortiz. TDLR has reinstated Ortiz’s victory in the Dec. 7 bout.”
ESPN also reports that the unnamed substance was “not a performance-enhancing drug,” and TDLR says they were just following protocol.
“[A fighter will] say, ‘Hey, I’ve been prescribed this, FYI,’” TDLR spokesperson Tela Mange said. “We say, ‘Great.’ And then when it actually comes up, oftentimes we’ll take a second look at it just to make sure. That’s what happened in this case.”
Ortiz (21-12-1) claimed his innocence after the news broke about the result change against Del Rio (9-6) earlier this week, with the former UFC champ saying it was a “BS claim”.
This is just another understandable recent criticism of the Texas Commission. They came under fire earlier this month for some of their judges’ questionable scorecards, and reported conflict of interest at the UFC 247 card in Houston.