Chances are most MMA fans hadn’t heard much about Vinicius Quieroz (5-2) before this week. The Brazilian Chute Boxe product made his Octagon debut at UFC 120 in London, losing via third-round submission to Rob Broughton on the unaired preliminaries.
It wasn’t the greatest start to a stint in the UFC, but it wasn’t deemed an offense worthy of dismissal. Not until the UFC’s independent drug testing nabbed him for using the steroid Stanozolol, that is.
Then he was not only fired from the organization but also forced to forfeit “an undisclosed discretionary bonus.”
The fact that he was given a bonus in the first place tells you the UFC wasn’t wholly unhappy with his performance in the cage. The fact that he was fired after the positive test result tells you that the UFC really is serious about cracking down on steroid users, just as long as those users are the kind of guys it can jettison without hurting the bottom line.