By Elias Cepeda
(Photo via Esther Lin & MMAFighting )
A week before he Alistair Overeem Gets April 24th NSAC Hearing” href=”http://www.cagepotato.com/alistair-overeem-gets-april-24th-nsac-hearing/” target=”_blank”>will appear before the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a hearing regarding his failed March drug test and to request a license to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, the NSAC’s Executive Director Keith Kizer says that Alistair Overeem’s legal team has yet to request additional sample tests or to indicate that they will apply for a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.
“They’ve asked for no additional testing ,” Kizer told CagePotato.com. “I have talked with Overeem’s attorney and that issue has not been raised.”
“He has not indicated what [Overeem’s] defense will be, but he has not said to me, as I’m sure he would have if he was using it, that [Overeem] is on TRT,” Kizer continued. “That is not to say that they could not still make that case and ask for a therapeutic use exemption for TRT, but if they do, I’d be as shocked as the next person. We’ll all see what they do when April 24th comes around.”
When Overeem’s hearing does take place in one week, Kizer anticipates that the fighter will not have an easy road to getting licensed again. “It is going to be a very tough hearing for Mr. Overeem, to say the least,” Kizer said.
The fact that Overeem previously failed to hand in samples for testing to the commission on time, will be relevant in the coming hearing, Kizer says.
“This is a lot different and a lot tougher [than Overeem’s last licensing hearing] come April 24th,” Kizer said. “What happened [before] is going to be very relevant. But the biggest relevancy to the commission’s decision this time will be what happened in March.”
A urine sample collected by the NSAC from Overeem on March 27th came back showing a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 14:1, in excess of the 6:1 ration that the state commission allows. That test counted as one of the two surprise tests Overeem had agreed to be subjected to by the NSAC in a six-month period as a part of a conditional license he was issued to fight Brock Lesnar in late December after the Dutch fighter tested and turned in a sample for testing weeks late.
Overeem’s conditional license expired after 2011. In order to obtain another license in Nevada to fight in his schedule title bout against Dos Santos, he has to appear before the NSAC on April 24th. The commission cannot suspend an unlicensed fighter for a failed drug test, but they can take into account Overeem’s recent screening results in deciding whether or not to issue a license to him.
Overeem’s failed test was of his ‘A’ sample. He has the right to ask the commission to test the ‘B’ sample he provided in March. Because Nevada does sometimes issue therapeutic use exemptions to some fighters to allow them to use otherwise banned substances and treatments (like testosterone replacement therapy) which could potentially alter a fighter’s testosterone levels and testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratios, it has been speculated that Overeem might apply for a TRT therapeutic use exemption with the commission, claiming a medical need for the therapy. As of now, that doesn’t seem to be the approach that Overeem will take while defending himself and re-applying for licensure next week.