Anti-doping chief: UFC may steer away from Texas after Cortney Casey cleared of wrongdoing

According to the UFC’s anti-doping czar, Cortney Casey has been cleared of wrongdoing both by a WADA-accredited lab and a testing laboratory hired by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation after she failed a post-fight drug test at UFC 211, which took place May 13 in Dallas.

After an initial test by a laboratory hired by the commission revealed a testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio slightly higher than 4-1, Casey’s “B” sample came back negative for banned substances and synthetic testosterone, Jeff Novitzky, the promotion’s VP of athlete health and performance, told MMAjunkie.

“Basically, she hadn’t done anything wrong,” he today said.

Yet the UFC women’s strawweight’s case remains “still under review” by the TDLR, which upon receiving the initial positive overturned Casey’s (6-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) unanimous-decision win over Jessica Aguilar (19-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC), suspended her for 90 days, and ordered her to pay a fine between $2,000 and $5,000.

“It’s burning me up because the whole process has been unfair to begin with, and here we are 36 hours later,” said Novitzky, who said the WADA-accredited Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory confirmed Casey’s negative and forwarded the results to the commission and UFC officials.

“This girl should be cleared publicly, and she hasn’t been yet,” he said.

Novitzky urged the TDLR to reverse its decision and cautioned the promotion could steer away future UFC events from Texas if the issue isn’t resolved.

“I think it’s pretty extreme, but thinking through things, if these problems aren’t fixed, the only recourse may be that we don’t make our athletes subject to this, and in the future, we can’t go to Texas,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to get to that level, but certainly that’s been a topic of discussion.”

In a prepared statement, TDLR spokesperson Susan Stanford declined to comment on the matter and stated it’s still an open case.

She added: “The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) consistently reviews all Combative Sports program rules, including those related to anti-doping. During the last review of the rules TDLR received a single public comment related to drug testing procedures. That comment sought to include all prohibited drugs in the standard testing panel.

“The Department welcomes additional comments about anti-doping and other concerns from the public and industry affecting the combative sports program.”

Casey did not express confidence the matter would be resolved quickly and said she’s preparing to fight the decision if it’s not reversed.

“I just want things to be right,” she told MMAjunkie. “There have been mistakes. It’s just been an extreme lack of professionalism on their part. I really hope everything gets fixed and I can move on from this. But the way it looks, it’s not going to be that easy.”

Casey said the TDLR notified her via email on May 26 of the positive test, stating her T/E ratio was 5.4-1. After informing Novitzky, she took the TDLR’s offer to have her “B” sample tested at her expense.

Since then, she said she’s heard little from the commission other than receiving a phone call in early June from a TDLR inspector that flatly asked, “What did you take to elevate your testosterone?”

Novitzky said upon hearing of Casey’s failure, he immediately contacted the regulator and cautioned that Casey’s elevated levels could’ve come from a legal substance such as birth control, which the fighter takes, she said, “so I don’t get pregnant so I can fight.”

“There are instances where athletes have physiological issues within their body that they just naturally have higher T/E ratios,” Novitzky said. “An athlete could potentially be taking an allowed substance, potentially birth control, (and) they could suppress some of the epitestosterone and show a mildly elevated level.”

The response, Novitzky said, was a blanket statement that any T/E result over 4-1 is a positive test.

On Thursday morning, Novitzky said he was informed by the TDLR’s drug testing laboratory, Austin Mobile Drug Testing, that Casey had come back negative for banned substances and exogenous testosterone, backing a result forwarded to him by SMRTL.

“I reached out to the attorney general’s office, the commission, and the investigator – I said, ‘Hey, here are the results. When can we expect a redaction of her previously announced positive test?'” he said. “And it’s been complete radio silence. Here we are 36 hours later, and they have not communicated with me, and they have not communicated with Cortney.”

The alleged mistake highlighted a last-minute request from the TDLR to handle all drug testing for the event, Novitzky said. The UFC anti-doping partner had agreed to cover the majority of drug tests for the event but changed course just beforehand and announced they would test all competitors.

Still, Novitzky said USADA did conduct drug tests at the event, which is how Casey’s situation came into focus.

“It’s an awful scenario for her,” he said. “She’s always going to have to live with that. It’s a headline on Page 1 and a redaction on Page 12. My concern is that there will be others that don’t hear she was cleared and always will look at her as a cheater, and that’s simply not the case.”

Casey laughed when asked whether she felt vindicated by the test results. It’s not the first time she’s encountered trouble with an athletic commission overseeing her fight. A previous decision loss to Claudia Gadelha at UFC Fight Night 100 was marred with accusations from the Brazilian Athletic Commission (CABMMA) that she faked an injury to sell an illegal head kick from Gadelha. The commission later toned down its remarks.

“I knew from the beginning that it’s just a waiting game to get the test results back,” she said. “It was a shock to me when I was told about the original test results. I hardly take any supplements. It was just a matter of the proper testing being done to prove I wasn’t at fault in any way.

“But at the same time, my win’s taken away. Articles have been written. Until all that gets reversed, I don’t feel vindicated at all. I already knew that was clean. I already knew that I didn’t do anything wrong. They chose to release everything to the public. So now I’m having to backtrack instead of doing the test to begin with before they say anything. They kind of put me in the position where I have to do damage control.”

For more on UFC 211, check out the UFC Events section of the site.