UFC featherweight title contender Chad Mendes was notified by the United States Anti-Doping Agency of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition drug test on June 10. The 145-pound contender made a public statement for the first time about the flagged test result on Monday via Twitter.
I didn’t do my homework and that was a big mistake. I own it and I’m going to pay for it.
— chad mendes (@chadmendes) June 18, 2016
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The standard suspension for the first time testing positive to a banned substance is two years. The length of the suspension can and has been reduced when fighters are able to provide evidence that their positive test result was due to a tainted supplement.
What Mendes tested positive to remains unknown, but his comment that he should have done his ‘homework’ suggests that it was something categorized as a performance enhancer.
Mendes last competed in December, losing to Frankie Edgar by knockout. If he’s given a two-year suspension, he’ll be 33-years-old when he returns in 2018.
