Antonio Trocoli | Photo by Chris Unger/DWCS LLC
Dana White’s Contender Series’ contestant Antonio Trocoli did not make it to the Octagon after failing a drug test.
Middleweight Antonio Trocoli made it past his bout on Dana White’s Contender Series, where he scored a first-round submission win on episode three of the show’s third season. However, ‘Malvado’ won’t get to make his UFC debut.
Per Combate’s Evy Rodrigues, the 28-year-old was released from his UFC contract after failing a USADA test for the banned performance enhancing substance nandrolone. On Twitter, Rodrigues wrote that UFC president Dana White confirmed the news.
Dana White said he will release Antonio Trocoli, who earned a contract with the UFC at DWCS a couple of weeks ago. Trocoli tested positive for nandrolone after the bout.
— Evy Rodrigues (@vevyrodrigues) July 31, 2019
Trocoli’s manager, Lukas Lutkus, also spoke to Combate and claimed that Antonio’s test might have suffered some sort of adulteration, which explains the unexpected result. However, it seems that White did not want to wait for a second test.
On Contender Series, Antonio Trocoli (12-3) defeated Kenneth Bergh via neck crank early in July to secure a UFC contract, which he has since squandered with that drug test failure. The Brazilian’s last loss happened in July 2017, when he was TKO’d by Marcelo Barbosa Ramos. Now, when he does return to competition, it won’t be under the UFC banner as he’d hoped.