Islam Makhachev’s longtime coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov revealed that his student used meldonium until the end of 2015.
Less than 24 hours ahead of his scheduled preliminary bout against Drew Dober on the UFC on FOX 19 card, Islam Makhachev was removed from the bout because of a flagged pre-fight drug test for meldonium.
The lightweight’s manager, Ali Abdel-Aziz, immediately came to the defence of his client and informed MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani that Makhachev was using the blood flow drug because of a heart procedure he had undergone in 2015. Lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov quickly followed suit and came to the aid of his teammate via social media.
Meldonium is medically used to treat ischemia, which is an issue concerning blood flow. It is not approved for use in the United States but is commonly available in the Russian Federation, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia. The medication helps improve exercise capacity in patients, as well as in healthy individuals and athletes. It has also shown benefits in dealing with diabetes and neurological disorders.
The drug is classified by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as a S4 substance to do with hormones or metabolic modulation, was added to the prohibited list on Jan. 1 2016 after being monitored the previous year. The reason behind this was “because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance.”
However, WADA also released a statement this week that meldonium could potentially linger in the athlete’s system months after they stop ingesting it. Therefore it is unclear whether some of the positive urine tests that occurred over the past few weeks/months actually contained meldonium samples from 2015. WADA also suggested that athletes that were flagged for less than 1mg of meldonium prior to March 1 can potentially seek amnesty.
Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s father and Islam’s longtime coach, raised this exact topic when he addressed his student’s use of the recently banned substance.
“We do not deny that [meldonium] was used until the end of 2015,” Abdulmanap said on his VK account. “We are outraged by another fact. According to manufacturer date, it is present in the body of the athlete for 120 days in some cases, and up to six months the body. This decision was taken by the UFC, but Islam is not disqualified.”
WADA confirmed over 200 positive tests for meldonium since the ban came into effect on Jan. 1 2016.