Confirmed: Cyborg Did Not Disclose Banned Substance To USADA Until After Test
With the UFC’s women’s featherweight division crowning a sort of placeholder champion in Germaine de Randamie, the woman who most believe to be the best pound-for-pound female fighter in MMA – Invicta FC featherweight champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino – was cleared of the potential USADA violation that clouded her anticipated return to the octagon.
Word came last week that USADA had exonerated Cyborg, who had received a retroactive TUE (therapeutic use exemption) for banned substance spironolactone, which she tested positive for in December. USADA then found Justino to be “in accordance with her physician’s recommendation for the treatment of a legitimate medical condition” due to a program she used to recover from the incredibly taxing weight cuts to 140 pounds she put her body through for her two UFC fights last year.
But according to a report looked into by Bloody Elbow’s Ian Kidd, Justino failed to disclose the fact she was using a banned substance when she began using it. Such a violation can be ground for punishment under USADA guidelines, but USADA communications manager Ryan Mardden released a statement earlier today confirming while Cyborg had not disclosed her use of the banned substance, she would still face no sanctions because she proved it was purely for medical reason:
“Her use of the medication was not initially disclosed; but more importantly, once contacted by USADA, she immediately identified the medication as the source of her positive test, submitted all necessary medical information and demonstrated that it was being used for legitimate medical purposes without enhancing her performance. Those are the primary considerations when reviewing any TUE application.”
Her reasons for using spironolactone may be completely justified – yet it’s not exactly the best look for a fighter who has been accused of frequently using performance-enhancing drugs due to her previous positive test while in Strikeforce back in 2011, in addition to her size and all-out dominance as the most powerful female to ever set foot into a cage.
The official USADA rulebook states that fighters must refrain from dealing “fraudulent information to UFC or USADA,” which would include failing to disclose any and all banned substances to the testing official at the time of collection.
However, Cyborg received the first official retroactive TUE in the relatively short history of the UFC’s drug-testing partnership with USADA, and she is off the hook (at least for now) because the banned substance she failed to disclose was purely for medical purposes rather than for any more nefarious gains.
Did Cyborg have a fair case for not disclosing the substance to USADA, or is she being treated unfairly compared to fellow UFC fighters?
