Courtney Casey‘s anti-doping sanction issued by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has been dropped and her victory over Jessica Aguilar has been reinstated.
Casey had been flagged by the TDLR for having an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. An elevated T/E ratio can be indicative of using performance-enhancing substances, but according to World Anti-Doping Agency standards advanced testing is required to make a definitive determination.
Texas initially suspended and fined Casey and changed her victory over Aguilar to a no-contest without any further testing.
The UFC and Casey requested the fighter’s B sample undergo advanced testing, which the TDLR complied with and the UFC paid for. The advanced testing showed no performance-enhancing substance use by Casey. Upon such a determination, the TDLR issued a letter to Casey – a copy of which was acquired by MMA Fighting – dropping its sanctions.
“After reexamination of the documents in our possession and careful examination of the Sample B results, your 90-day suspension is lifted effective June 29, 2017, the enforcement case dropped with no further action taken, and the bout ‘win’ reinstated on your record,” said the document sent to Casey by TDLR executive director Brian Francis.
It is a critical finding in favor of Casey, who notched one of the most important victory’s of her career against Aguilar. She had been coming off of a loss entering that fight and having lost three of her previous five bouts. The victory puts her back on track and against a former World Series of Fighting champion at that.
It was also a critical finding in the adjudication of anti-doping in the UFC, as it ensures that fighters get treated fairly when there is a false positive.
“UFC has made it very clear that it takes anti-doping very seriously, instituting the most comprehensive anti-doping program in sports. One of the keys to this program, and any effective, world-class program, is ensuring that all athletes are treated to proper due process,” UFC officials said in a statement after receiving the results of the advanced testing of Casey’s B sample.
“UFC strawweight Cortney Casey’s recent case, stemming from her fight in Dallas on May 13, 2017, is a perfect example of the type of negative and damaging backlash for an athlete resulting from a false-positive. There is no better example than this for the need to have proper due process and testing in combat sports and professional sports anti-doping.”
(Photo courtesy of UFC)
