After a second positive test for steroids, Stephan Bonnar has been suspended for one year by the UFC.
The news comes to us via MMA Fightings’ Ariel Helwani:
According to Marc Ratner, the UFC’s VP of regulatory affairs, Bonnar will be suspended until Oct. 13, 2013, after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone following his UFC 153 loss to Anderson Silva last month.
In the report, Helwani also states the the looming suspension of Dave Herman is still up in the air. Herman is also coming off a second positive drug test, but his is for marijuana, and as Helwani notes, Ratner was careful to point out that the UFC was going to treat the use of PEDs and recreational drugs differently.
Although, it was also mentioned that Ratner “expects Herman to be suspended for ‘months,’ while also having to go through some kind of rehab program.”
As for Bonnar, 35, his first suspension for PEDs came in 2006. In that instance, Bonnar was coming off a loss to Forrest Griffin when “metabolites of the anabolic steroid Boldenone were found in his system,” per Helwani’s report. He served a nine-month suspension.
He then won his next two bouts coming off the suspension.
So, Bonnar has shown he can bounce back after a long layoff, but one still has to wonder if this is the end of the line for him. The loss to Silva was just his second fight since December 4th of 2010, and he did not look particularly fierce while suffering a first-round TKO.
I can’t imagine he is anxious to have a suspension dictate the end of his career, but he might not have a choice as his tank appears to be hitting empty.
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