Tag: Francis Ngannou

Junior Dos Santos Issues Statement On USADA Test Failure

When news arrived Friday that former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos had been flagged for a potential USADA anti-doping violation, the MMA world lost its best current heavyweight bout with “Cigano” forced out of his UFC 215 barnburner with rising star Francis Ngannou. Ngannou not surprisingly reacted with anger and went on to seek a […]

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When news arrived Friday that former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos had been flagged for a potential USADA anti-doping violation, the MMA world lost its best current heavyweight bout with “Cigano” forced out of his UFC 215 barnburner with rising star Francis Ngannou.

Ngannou not surprisingly reacted with anger and went on to seek a short-notice fight with former title challenger Alistair Overeem. Dos Santos’ team clarified the situation by revealing he had tested positive for the diuretic Hydrochlorothiazite in the August 10 out-of-competition test, and they were working diligently to find out if it had been the result of a tainted supplement, a go-to reason for fighters who test positive that has nonetheless been proven a cause of false positives in the still-developing era of USADA drug testing in the UFC.

Now, dos Santos himself has addressed the elephant in the room, issuing a statement to his Instagram account proclaiming his innocence and that truth would prevail because he would never cheat. When it does, he hopes to get his fight with “The Predator” re-scheduled:

“Hey everyone, I am here at home and I am not here to give an explanation. Soon everything will be clear to all of you and no doubts that truth will prevail. I am here in respect for all of you guys. I just want to say that this situation is very tough, for me, my team and my family. I would never cheat, it goes against everything I stand for, I play the fair game. We will get to the bottom of this and figure out what happened, learn from it and move on. I hope in the near future Francis Ngannou and me can face each other and give you guys the show you were expecting. For now, thank you very much for your support, it means a lot to me and that’s why I am here. Good night.”

Oi pessoal Eu não estou aqui para dar explicações, logo tudo será esclarecido para todos vocês e sem duvidas que a verdade prevalecerá. Eu estou aqui em respeito a todos vocês. Eu só quero que saibam que essa situação tem sido bastante difícil para mim, meu time e minha família. Eu nunca trapacearia, isso vai contra tudo o que acredito e apoio. Nós estamos investigando isso a fundo e logo descobriremos o que aconteceu, aprenderemos com isso e seguiremos em frente. Mas eu espero que em um futuro próximo, Francis Ngannou e eu possamos nos enfrentar e dar a vocês, a luta que estavam esperando ver. Por agora, muito obrigado por todo seu apoio, isso significa muito para mim e é por isso que estou aqui. Boa noite.

A post shared by Junior Cigano Dos Santos (@junior_cigano) on

There’s no reason to believe dos Santos would be lying to his fans based on any past history with banned substances, of which he has none, but the process will play out according to the guidelines in place.

It’s also hard to come up with a good reason why a heavyweight who never threatens the division’s 265-pound weight limit would need to use a banned diuretic, which is used to rapidly cut water weight by flushing the system – other than that he was trying to purge his system of other banned substances by using them.

Regardless, he and his team have claimed complete innocence since the disappointing news came, and we’ve seen multiple fighters have their USADA sanctions reduced based on a tainted supplement before. We’ll see if that approach holds up for “Cigano” so he can give his fans the showdown with “The Predator” they were anticipating.

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Losing JDS Fight May Be Blessing In Disguise For Francis Ngannou

In a division lacking fresh and available title contenders, No. 4-ranked UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou has stuck out as a potential future challenger to champion Stipe Miocic’s throne. At just 30 years of age, the hard-hitting Ngannou has won five consecutive UFC bouts, with all five of those victories coming by way of stoppage. Three […]

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In a division lacking fresh and available title contenders, No. 4-ranked UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou has stuck out as a potential future challenger to champion Stipe Miocic’s throne.

At just 30 years of age, the hard-hitting Ngannou has won five consecutive UFC bouts, with all five of those victories coming by way of stoppage. Three of those victories have also come in the first round.

After dispatching former champion Andrei Arlovski with a brutal first-round knockout last January, “The Predator” was signed on to face another former champion in Junior Dos Santos at September’s UFC 215 from Edmonton, Canada. The bout represented not only the biggest of his career; but with a win, Ngannou would most likely earn himself a heavyweight title shot.

Due to the high stakes of the fight, it wasn’t surprising to see Ngannou voice his anger after it was announced yesterday (Aug. 18, 2017) that Dos Santos was flagged by USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) for a potential doping violation, which essentially forced him out of the fight.

 

Ngannou has since campaigned for a fight with No. 1-ranked Alistair Overeem, but losing out on his chance to do battle with “Cigano” may actually serve as a blessing in disguise for “The Predator”.

When looking at the heavyweight title picture, Miocic has already beaten fighters ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 5. That leaves Ngannou and ex-titleholder Cain Velasquez as the lone top five contenders that have yet to receive a crack at Miocic, and it just so happens that the champion is in need of an opponent.

There have been rumors that the UFC was interested in booking Miocic against Velasquez, but the oft-injured Velasquez is no sure thing at this point in his career.

Once considered to be quite possibly the very best heavyweight of all-time, Velasquez has spent the majority of the last few years dealing with physical setbacks. He fought just once in 2015, once in 2016, and he’s spent all of 2017 on the sidelines thus far.

Sure, a bout between Miocic and Velasquez would be highly intriguing, but it’s unclear whether or not the Mexican-American is even healthy enough to fight at this point.

One man who is healthy and ready, however, is Ngannou.

Miocic has discussed his displeasure with his contract situation in recent memory, but if he can handle those issues with the UFC, he’ll need an opponent. At this point, there is simply no better option than “The Predator”.

In addition to fighting Velasquez, there were also some rumors indicating that Miocic could return at UFC 216 in October. If that reigns true, the UFC could simply push Ngannou back a month and book an interesting heavyweight title fight on a card in desperate need of a main event.

He may be ‘angry’ that he lost a chance to fight Dos Santos, but Ngannou may have also skyrocketed to the top of the heavyweight title picture in the process.

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Ngannou on Overeem Bout at UFC 205: ‘Let’s do This’

Francis Ngannou has taken a pragmatic approach to being left without an opponent following USADA’s pulling of Junior Dos Santos’ from their upcoming bout The Cameroonian has called out veteran heavyweight Alistair Overeem in what would be a crowd-pleasing bout, to say the least. Should the Dutchman accept Ngannou’s invitation, then two of the hardest hitters […]

Francis Ngannou has taken a pragmatic approach to being left without an opponent following USADA’s pulling of Junior Dos Santos’ from their upcoming bout The Cameroonian has called out veteran heavyweight Alistair Overeem in what would be a crowd-pleasing bout, to say the least. Should the Dutchman accept Ngannou’s invitation, then two of the hardest hitters […]

Junior Dos Santos’ Team Reacts To Potential USADA Violation

The MMA world was dealt a somewhat shocking blow yesterday (Fri., August 18, 2017) when news broke that former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos had been flagged for a potential USADA violation, forcing him out of his awaited UFC 215 match-up with rising prospect Francis Ngannou. Specific details of his out-of-competition test failure were […]

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The MMA world was dealt a somewhat shocking blow yesterday (Fri., August 18, 2017) when news broke that former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos had been flagged for a potential USADA violation, forcing him out of his awaited UFC 215 match-up with rising prospect Francis Ngannou.

Specific details of his out-of-competition test failure were unclear, but dos Santos’ manager Ana Guedes offered two statements to MMA Fighting to clarify the situation somewhat. First off, Guedes stood fast in her stance that “Cigano” is and always has been against performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in MMA, adding that he’s never used them and fully supports USADA’s efforts to clean up MMA:

“We are still trying to understand the test results, so that we can investigate and determine what happened. What we know as of now is that Junior dos Santos has never taken PEDs, has never knowingly used any banned substances, and has always supported USADA’s policies and efforts to keep the sport clean.

“If ever there was a fighter who made his position on this issue unequivocal, it’s Junior. We are confident that that we will be able to figure out what happened, and will provide an explanation once we have one.”

ufc on fox

A second statement then delved much deeper into the exact specific nature of his potential violation, where Guedes detailed that dos Santos had tested positive for banned diuretic Hydrochlorothiazite. Guedes described how the team was exploring any and all options to find out just how dos Santos ingested the substance, working with the UFC’s athlete health and wellness department to determine if a tainted supplement was to blame:

“Junior tested positive for a substance called Hydrochlorothiazite, which is a diuretic and is banned by USADA due to its use as a masking agent,” the second statement read. “We do not know where this substance came from. Junior has had his blood and urine randomly tested many times and has never once tested positive for a banned substance.

“We requested testing of his B sample today. Most times, the B sample will show the identical results as the A sample. Therefore, we are already working on analyzing his nutritional supplements and medications, to determine whether anything might have been contaminated. Jeff Novitzky and Donna Marcolini of the UFC have provided the guidance for this process, and we are grateful to them for their professionalism and competence.”

Finally, Guedes reiterated that even though her client was supposedly bearing some of the unfortunate consequences of the much stricter testing, dos Santos remained in full support of USADA’s efforts, and had also offered an apology to Ngannou in hopes of rescheduling their potentially explosive fight at a later date:

“Junior remains committed to and supportive of USADA drug testing – even if he is bearing an unfortunate consequence of it. He spoke personally with Francis Ngannou, and apologized for the unintended consequence to him. Junior thanks Francis for the sympathy, understanding, and respect that transpired during their call, and very much looks forward to resolving this situation so that he and Francis can set up a new date to face one another.”

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Francis Ngannou Reacts To Disappointing JDS Test Failure

Francis Ngannou is very, very angry about this evening’s news that his UFC 215 opponent Junior Dos Santos had been forced out of their bout at the September 9 pay-per-view (PPV) because of a potential USADA violation. Ngannou and former champ dos Santos were supposed to square off in a crucial heavyweight showdown at the […]

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Francis Ngannou is very, very angry about this evening’s news that his UFC 215 opponent Junior Dos Santos had been forced out of their bout at the September 9 pay-per-view (PPV) because of a potential USADA violation.

Ngannou and former champ dos Santos were supposed to square off in a crucial heavyweight showdown at the UFC’s first-ever event from Edmonton, but all of that obviously fell apart when dos Santos was flagged, leaving the promotion to scramble to find a late replacement.

Not surprisingly, the No. 5-ranked Ngannou tweeted that he was not happy with the development, noting that he was nearly done with his training camp:

It’s a predictable response from Ngannou, who was set to take on by far his biggest-name opponent in former champ dos Santos after blasting through his first five UFC opponents with shocking ease. His most recent win came over another former heavyweight champion in Andrei Arlovski, but it’s clear to see that more recent title contender “JDS” was set to propel the “Predator” to new heights; even a possible title shot.

For now, however, the promotion will look to hastily find a replacement to meet the booming would-be superstar in only three weeks’ time, no easy task for anyone – let alone to battle the most fearsome up-and-coming force in the octagon.

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Junior dos Santos Off UFC 215 For Potential USADA Violation

Junior dos Santos has been pulled from UFC 215 and is facing a suspension. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight title holder was set to take on Francis Ngannou inside the Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta on Sept. 9. Instead, Ngannou is left without an opponent although a replacement search has begun. An Aug. 10 […]

Junior dos Santos has been pulled from UFC 215 and is facing a suspension. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight title holder was set to take on Francis Ngannou inside the Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta on Sept. 9. Instead, Ngannou is left without an opponent although a replacement search has begun. An Aug. 10 […]