Maybe the “Bird” isn’t so “Dirty” after all.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) veteran Tim Means was pulled from his Donald Cerrone fight on Tuesday, which was originally scheduled for the upcoming UFC Fight Night 83 mixed martial arts (MMA) event on FOX Sports 1 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
That’s because a potential anti-doping violation was detected in a recent out-of-competition drug test (details).
Means, however, insists he’s not juicing or trying to gain a competitive edge, telling his Twitter followers he never heard of Ostarine and that his violation came out of left field. He further elaborated to MMA Oddsbreaker while raising a few questions about the validity of his urine sample.
“I’m working my ass off. I’m not cutting corners and that’s what I’m sticking to. I don’t need to go Anderson Silva-style and say it was Viagra or whatever. All my shit’s working correctly. I’m a skinny dude. If I’m taking steroids, it’s gonna show. This was just something that popped up and it was a low, small amount. They want to test the other urine but I have to put it in writing first. They should have done that before they pulled me from the show to make sure that they were right. How many other tests are going through, cross-contamination, going through those machines? They test 500 fighters now, all these things keep popping up. What’s to say contamination isn’t on their end? I’m gonna jump through the hoops they want me to and this will all get straightened out in the end. The truth always prevails.”
The (cough) “truth” didn’t prevail for the aforementioned Silva, but that’s neither here nor there.
In his absence, Alex Oliveira is expected to step in and fight his fellow “Cowboy” in “Steel City.” In the interim, Means will continue to work on straightening out his issues with USADA and with any luck, can avoid a fine and possible suspension from combat sports.
For much more on UFC Fight Night 83 click here.