Alexander Shlemenko has filed a lawsuit against the California State Athletic Commission following his three-year suspension and $10,000 fine for a failed post-fight drug test after his Bellator 133 knockout of Melvin Manhoef.

The punishment – especially the three-year suspension – was the harshest penalty the commission has handed a fighter since it began regulating MMA in 2006.

Shlemenko (51-9 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) tested positive for the steroid oxandrolone and oxandrolone metabolites as well as a testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio of 50-1 (the commission’s limit is 4-1).

When contacted today by MMAjunkie, CSAC Executive Director Andy Foster said he had just received word of the lawsuit and was still looking into it.

The basis of the suit, which was filed in Los Angeles on Aug. 28, is that CSAC officials failed to give proper notice of the type of hearing and sanctions they were seeking, failed to act consistently with previous situations involving failed drug tests, and applied penalties that the commission had not formally adopted as rules.

The suit also alleges the CSAC was legally and factually incorrect in stating that it was not required to split Shlemenko’s urine sample into an “A” and “B” sample, as well as in their statements the non-disclosure of steroid use on the pre-fight questionnaire constituted a falsification of his application.

One of the CSAC’s central arguments at the June 23 hearing was Shlemenko’s use of steroids put Manhoef (29-12-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) in significant danger during their Feb. 13 Spike-televised fight in Fresno.

“Our job here is to protect the fighters, period,” CSAC commissioner John Frierson said during the hearing. “The guy that he knocked out, he could have killed him.”

The suit takes issue with that line of thinking and says the three-year suspension due to injuring his opponent is also “legally and factually inaccurate.”

The second-round spinning-backfist knockout of Manhoef came in Shlemenko’s first fight in Bellator since dropping his middleweight title to Brandon Halsey at Bellator 126. That loss came on the heels of a defeat to Tito Ortiz in a light-heavyweight bout at Bellator 120. The 31-year-old was riding a 13-fight winning streak before the setbacks.

For more on Bellator 133, check out the MMA Events section of the site.