A curious footnote to the Bellator Birmingham event in the UK on May 4th last crossed my path this evening. A Bellator in-competition drug test from the event of a little known, journey-man MMA fighter called Falco Neto came back positive. Mr Neto tested positive for the metabolites of steroids methyltestosterone and nandrolone. Thankfully his opponent Fabian Edwards did us all a favor and knocked him the fuck out.

Neto received the princely sanction of a 6 month ban for the above combination of violations. To put it another way if Neto was a UFC fighter and subject to the rules of USADA ( The United States Anti-doping agency) he would be teetering somewhere between a 2 year and possibly even a 4 year ban.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on the science of performance enhancing drugs or the science of PED testing but the fact that Bellator have virtually no out of competition drug testing of any kind allied to the fact that this ban is a little on the light side is going to prevent the organisation moving to the next level as a global combat sports franchise.

When they hand down such a ludicrously benign sanction as the one in this Neto case – 6 months – well it is very hard to make any case that they are serious about drug testing or preventing performance enhancing drugs. And to me that says they do not care about fighter safety and the duty of care they have to clean athletes.

Now who, you might ask, carries out their in competition drug testing?

Is it a USADA?

Is it a WADA?

No. It’s a curious collection of people called The Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation that regulates and sanctions many of Bellator’s overseas events including the one on May 4th in Birmingham. It all sounds a little too Harry Potteresque for my liking.

A little background on the Mohegan Tribe is provided below. It is essentially an Indian tribal state in the great state of Connecticut in the United States.

And if your thinking Indian Tribal State = Gambling Income

Well congratulations in this instance you would be correct.

How this Indian tribal state is in the business of Athletic commissions, holding Bellator events, sanctioning fights, drug-testing and issuing bans – I have no idea. I raise the point merely to emphasize the fact that in addition to having no out of competition drug testing, Bellator’s in competition drug testing is probably not gold standard.

Sincerely, I am not here to bash Bellator. I would dearly love to see them provide stiff competition to the UFC on all fronts; from fighter salary, media exposure and fighter talent to name but a few. But they must also start competing with them on how seriously they take drug testing for performance enhancing drugs. How seriously they take fighter safety.

Bellator need to address their testing issues immediately and that starts with employing either USADA or WADA as the official body responsible for testing in and out of competition. The UFC finally bit the bullet a few years ago and signed up with USADA. They came to the table late and reluctantly and it has not been smooth sailing; we frequently hear Dana White bitching and moaning about how much stringent drug testing is cost the UFC. But at the end of the day THEY ARE DOING IT and we are starting to see results.

The UFC systems are not yet perfect as many of you will have noticed in the cases of Jon Jones and Tj Dillashaw. But athletes are now consistently getting caught and cheating is becoming a dangerous and costly business. USADA in most instance are issuing appropriate bans. In the most recent high profile case TJ Dillashaw immediately got a two year ban. End of Story.

I have published below the full list of MMA fighters banned for PEDs since MMA came under the USADA umbrella. Isn’t it time Bellator added a few to the list.

I have started with the most recent and worked my way back to 2016. There are plenty of familiar names besides Jon Jones!

Athletes Sanctioned by USADA since 2016

Athlete Sport Drug Sanction Ribas, Amanda Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 2-Year Suspension – Sanction Reduced Costa, Carlos Mixed Martial Arts Non-Analytical: Possession and Administration 6-Month Suspension Costa, Paulo Mixed Martial Arts Non-Analytical: Intravenous Infusion 6-Month Suspension Montano, Nicco Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 6-Month Suspension O’Malley, Sean Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 6-Month Suspension Vettori, Marvin Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 6-Month Suspension Mendes, Augusto Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 6-Month Suspension Harris, Walt Mixed Martial Arts LGD-4033 4-Month Suspension Taisumov, Mairbek Mixed Martial Arts Stanozolol 6-Month Suspension Dillashaw, TJ Mixed Martial Arts Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) 2-Year Suspension Murzakanov, Azamat Mixed Martial Arts Boldenone 2-Year Suspension Magomedov, Ruslan Mixed Martial Arts Methyltestosterone; Stanozolol Lifetime Suspension Murtazaliev, Khalid Mixed Martial Arts Drostanolone 2-Year Suspension Collier, Jake Mixed Martial Arts Higenamine 10-Month Suspension Maia, Jennifer Mixed Martial Arts Furosemide; Hydrochlorothiazide; Chlorothiazide; Thiazide metabolite 4-amino-6-chloro-1,3-benzenedisulfonamide (ACB) 6-Month Suspension Sekulic, Stefan Mixed Martial Arts Drostanolone; Metandienone 2-Year Suspension Kandare, Bharat Vijay Mixed Martial Arts Boldenone; Tamoxifen 2-Year Suspension Reyes, Polo Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 6-Month Suspension Scott, Bradley Mixed Martial Arts Cocaine 2-Year Suspension Hunter, Adam Mixed Martial Arts Tamoxifen; Boldenone, Methandienone, Drostanolone, and Clenbuterol 2-Year Suspension – Loss of Results – Additional Loss of Results Jones, Jon Mixed Martial Arts Chlorine-substituted Anabolic Steroid 15-Month Suspension – Loss of Results Werdum, Fabricio Mixed Martial Arts Trenbolone 2-Year Suspension Silva, Anderson Mixed Martial Arts Methyltestosterone; Hydrochlorothiazide 1-Year Suspension Oleksiejczuk, Michał Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene 1-Year Suspension Nogueira, Antonio Rogerio Mixed Martial Arts Hydrochlorothiazide 6-Month Suspension Almeida, Junior dos Santos Mixed Martial Arts Hydrochlorothiazide 6-Month Suspension De Lima, Marcos Rogerio Mixed Martial Arts Anastrozole; Hydrochlorothiazide 6-Month Suspension Diaz, Nick Mixed Martial Arts Non-Analytical: 3 Whereabouts Failures 1-Year Supension Rothwell, Ben Mixed Martial Arts Testosterone 2-Year Suspension Lemos, Amanda Mixed Martial Arts Stanozolol 2-Year Suspension Barnett, Josh Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine Public Warning Cutelaba, Ion Mixed Martial Arts Non-Analytical: Blood Transfusion 6-Month Suspension Calvillo, Cynthia Mixed Martial Arts Cannabinoids 6-Month Suspension Anyanwu, Azunna Mixed Martial Arts Furosemide 1-Year Suspension Tukhugov, Zubaira Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 2-Year Suspension Magomedov, Ruslan Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 2-Year Suspension Wallhead, Jim Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 9-Month Suspension de Tomas, Carls John Mixed Martial Arts Furosemide 1-Year Suspension Mulheron, James Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene 1-Year Suspension Rivera, Francisco Mixed Martial Arts Clenbuterol 4-Year Suspension Penne, Jessica Mixed Martial Arts Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) 18-Month Suspension Moreno, Brandon Mixed Martial Arts Clenbuterol No Fault or Negligence Felipe Cabral de Almeida, Carlos Mixed Martial Arts Stanozolol Metabolites 2-Year Suspension Taylor, Jesse Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene 1-Year Suspension Roehrick, Nick Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene and its metabolite 1-Year Suspension Cannetti, Guido Mixed Martial Arts Hydrochlorothiazide, Chlorothiazide, Ostarine and Stanozolol Metabolites 10-Month Suspension Sullivan, George Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene and its metabolite 1-Year Suspension; Second Violation Gastelum, Kelvin Mixed Martial Arts Cannabinoids 6-Month Suspension with 3-Month Deferral Abreu, Ricardo Mixed Martial Arts Androgenic Anabolic Steroid & 19-norandrosterone (19-NA) 4-Year Suspension: Sanction is tolled until athlete returns from retirement. Second Violation. Mir, Francisco Mixed Martial Arts Dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT) 2-Year Suspension Ledet, Justin Mixed Martial Arts 1-testosterone and 1-androstenedione 4-Month Suspension Good, Lyman Mixed Martial Arts 1-androstenedione and its metabolite 6-Month Suspension Nicolau Pereira, Matheus Mixed Martial Arts Anastrozole 1-Year Suspension Andrade, Viscardi Mixed Martial Arts Stanozolol and its metabolites 2-Year Suspension Lawlor, Tom Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 2-Year Suspension Omielanczuk, Daniel Mixed Martial Arts Meldonium No Fault or Negligence Olivieri, Luis Felipe Mixed Martial Arts Methyltestosterone 2-Year Suspension Lesnar, Brock Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene 1-Year Suspension Ferreira, Carlos Diego Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine and 7-keto-DHEA 17-Month Suspension Machida, Lyoto Mixed Martial Arts 7?keto?DHEA 18-Month Suspension Sullivan, George Mixed Martial Arts Non-Analytical: Use (IGF-1) 1-Year Suspension Jones, Jon Mixed Martial Arts Clomiphene, Letrozole 1-Year Suspension Edilov, Abdul-Kerim Mixed Martial Arts Meldonium 15 Month Suspension – Loss of Results Diaz, Nate Mixed Martial Arts Cannabinoids Public Warning Jingliang, Li Mixed Martial Arts Clenbuterol No Fault or Negligence Montano, Augusto Mixed Martial Arts Clenbuterol No Fault or Negligence Guangyou, Ning Mixed Martial Arts Clenbuterol No Fault or Negligence Abreu, Ricardo Mixed Martial Arts Androgenic Anabolic Steroid & 19-norandrosterone (19-NA) 2-Year Suspension – Loss of Results Makhachev, Islam Mixed Martial Arts Meldonium No Fault or Negligence Mendes, Chad Mixed Martial Arts Growth Hormone-Releasing Hexapeptide 2-Year Suspension – Loss of Results Penn, BJ Mixed Martial Arts Non-Analytical: Use (IV) 6-Month Suspension Means, Tim Mixed Martial Arts Ostarine 6-Month Suspension – Loss of Results Brandao, Diego Mixed Martial Arts Cannabinoids 9-Month Suspension – Loss of Results Romero, Yoel Mixed Martial Arts Ibutamoren 6-Month Suspension Tibau, Gleison Mixed Martial Arts Erythropoietin (EPO) 2-Year Suspension – Loss of Results Filipovic, Mirko Mixed Martial Arts Human Growth Hormone (hGH) 2-Year Suspension – Loss of Results

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