Another one bites the dust… hard.
As if UFC on FOX 19 didn’t have enough fight cancellations to deal with, the FOX-televised event, which is set to pop off this Saturday (April 16, 2016) from Tampa, Florida, news recently broke that co-headliner Lyoto Machida has been pulled from his upcoming fight against Dan Henderson.
The reason?
“The Dragon” admitted to U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) officials during an out-of-competition drug screening that he took a banned substance. Of course, Lyoto claims that he was unaware that the supplement — which has yet to be revealed — was prohibited.
UFC released an official statement:
“The UFC organization was made aware today by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, that Lyoto Machida declared the usage of a banned substance during an out-of-competition sample collection last week. Machida stated that he was unaware that the substance was prohibited both in and out of competition and, in accordance with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, his disclosure of usage will be taken into consideration by USADA during any potential results management and adjudication process.”
Points for honesty?
Interestingly enough, Gegard Mousasi recently expressed his disdain for Machida, after he claimed that he was on steroids during their fight back in 2014 in which “The Dragon” walked away with a unanimous decision win.
Stay tuned for more on this developing story.