Defense exhibit I: You can clearly see Feijao’s teammate slipping him something behind his back. Don’t waste your time, Feijao, it’s been tried before. (Photo: MMAJunkie.com)
If Dana White has been hexed with an “Injury Curse“, surely someone has placed a “Banned Substance Pox” on poor Scott Coker. After losing two stars in Cyborg Santos and Muhammed Lawal to failed drug tests earlier this year, he’ll now likely have to soldier on without the services of former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante.
As first tweeted by Gabriel Montoya and reported by MMAFighting.com [thanks for doing the heavy lifting, guys], the California State Athletic Commission has suspended ‘Feijao’ for one year and fined him $2,500 after testing positive for a banned substance following his quick destruction of Mike Kyle last month at “Strikeforce: Barnett vs Cormier”. ‘Feijao’ stunned Kyle with a big knee in the opening moments of the bout then swarmed him with ground and pound before pulling guard, sinking in a guillotine choke, and drawing the tap—all in a cool 33 seconds.
CSAC’s George Dodd has yet to reveal which banned substance Cavalcante was popped for, but his manager, Ed Soares, isn’t buying it:
“I believe in his innocence, and we’re fighting it. We stand behind him. There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense.”
Soares has already replied to the commission and plans to appeal the suspension and fine. For now, any plans for his charge to face Gegard Mousasi for the title will have to be put on hold.
While we do enjoy jumping the gun and crucifying folks before all of the facts come in, let’s keep in mind that the terms “banned substance” and “Performing Enhancing Drug” are not synonymous. The failed test could simply mean that Cavalcante ordered some herbal medicine from HomeRemedies.209.biz. We’ll keep you posted.