(Editor’s note: Updated at 6:50 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 10, 2020, with statement from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.)

Former UFC strawweight title challenger Jessica Penne says that after years of stress and thousands of dollars spent battling her case, she fears her fighting career may be over.

Penne (12-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) said that she is currently facing a four-year ban from competition from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, following what the UFC’s official anti-doping partner has labeled a second infraction of the UFC Anti-Doping Program.

In a lengthy post to Instagram, the 36-year-old Penne outlined a series of events that has kept her sidelined since an April 2017 loss to Danielle Taylor at UFC Fight Night 108 – and could potentially signal the end of a professional career that launched in 2006.

UFC officials did not immediately reply for comment. But a USADA official released a statement to MMA Junkie that disputes some of Penne’s comments.

“Given Jessica Penne’s public statement, we can confirm her positive test for stanozolol,” the statement reads. “However, there are many factual inaccuracies and unfounded allegations in her statement, including that she has been forced out of UFC. In fact, she has exercised her right to contest her case before an independent arbitrator, per a request USADA received after she released her public statement. Under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, all athletes have the right to present the facts and circumstances during a full evidentiary hearing. We look forward to the opportunity to present the facts and evidence through this process.”

Penne’s saga began, she said, with a doctor prescribing “an over the counter medication that would balance out my extremely deficient hormone levels.” Unfortunately, while a pre-fight drug test administered before the contest was initially reported as negative, Penne became the first UFC athlete flagged following a review of her biological passport, which, according to the World Anti-Doping Association, is used “to monitor selected biological variables over time that indirectly reveal the effects of doping rather than attempting to detect the doping substance or method itself.”

Penne was banned for 18 months following the discovery of a prohibited substance when her sample was passed through additional screening. During the layoff, Penne said she “kept my mouth shut and served my sentence” despite insisting she “did not knowingly break the rules.”

While sidelined, Penne revealed she took to driving for Lyft and teaching private training sessions to make ends meet before finally being scheduled to return for a bout with Jodie Esquibel at UFC on ESPN 1 in February 2019 in Arizona. In a bizarre incident, Penne injured her ankle in a morning workout on the day of the fight and was forced to reschedule the contest to April 2019 at UFC on ESPN+ 8 in Florida.

Penne withdrew from the contest a little more than a week ahead of the rescheduled affair, though no reason was cited at the time.

“The reason I was pulled was because of an extremely low level of stanozolol was found was found in my system (picogram levels),” Penne wrote on her post. “My heart sank… after everything I had gone through by complying and staying quite (sic) just to get my shot back, this happened.”

Penne said she went on to spend thousands of dollars “testing medications and supplements (most of which were 3rd party certified that the UFC PI gave me),” and that the lab that handled the screens did identify banned substances in the products. While Penne assumed “my name would be cleared and I could return to fighting,” she says USADA officials informed her that independent testing they conducted found different results, and that they planned on handing her a second violation, which means a mandatory four-year suspension from competition.

A retroactive order would leave Penne ineligible to compete until 2023, at which point she would be 40.

In the meantime, Penne said she is “lost and defeated” and has “lost all hope and respect for the USADA program.” The former Invicta FC atomweight champion said she has been presented with a sanction from USADA but refuses to sign the agreement.

She said her representation at SuckerPunch Entertainment is suggesting the possibility of a GoFundMe account to raise money for a legal battle against USADA they anticipate could cost as much as $40,000.

“All I can say is that everybody outside of the one person in charge of the case at USADA believes Jessica is innocent, and that includes Jeff Novitzky and Donna Marcolini at the UFC,” SuckerPunch Entertainment CEO Brian Butler-Au stated. “We are all for a clean sport, but when common sense can’t step in and everything becomes simply black and white, it opens doors for this type of thing to happen. Jessica’s career has been systematically ruined due to reading everything as either black or white, and there is simply more to it than that, and everyone involved knows it.”

If that’s unsuccessful, it appears Penne’s fighting days may have come to an end.

“I with all my heart that you all believe in me and know I would never cheat,” Penne wrote. “I loved this sport and gave my life to it.”