After a scheduled UFC 136 bout between Dave Herman and Mike Russow was cancelled on Wednesday, many were unsure why. It turns out the heavyweight prospect failed his pre-fight drug test for the Oct. 8 bout.
In a recent interview with Clinch Gear Radio, Herman explained the situation as told to him by the Texas commission:
I’m still trying to (figure it out). I’ve been making phone calls but they said I failed my drug test. I don’t think (it affects my relationship with the UFC). I’ve been trying to talk to the Texas commission and everything because I went in to get my drug test and a week later they called me and said they lost my urine specimen and I had to come in and redo it. That was last week. So I went back in that day and today they said I failed. I was like, ‘That’s impossible.’ So…yeah.
It doesn’t end there. After they found and tested his first sample, the second one also came back positive, but for a different substance.
He explained the second drug test result as well:
I went in on Sept. 15 and took the first test and then a week later they e-mailed me and called me and said they lost the sample and I had to come in and do it again. So I went in to do it again that day and then today they just got the results, I guess. But then I called, ’cause I’ve been trying to straighten this out, like how did they lose it but then they found it, like, what happened, I don’t know. But then Texas said that they never lost it and the first one was for drugs and the second one was for steroids. They didn’t say I had it for performance-enhancing drugs, they said I had marijuana. And I don’t even smoke.
It turns out neither test matches the other for what he tested positive for. The first one came back with him testing positive for marijuana. The second one came back with him testing positive for steroids.
It’s a tough situation for the 26-year-old, who picked up his first UFC victory back in June for which he won a fight of the night bonus.
Russow is still scheduled to fight on the card, but an opponent has not been named. The main card bout has been replaced with a rematch between Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia. The card is headlined by a rematch between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.
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