UFC star Brock Lesnar in potential doping violation
MMA and WWE fighter says ‘we’ll get to bottom of this’
Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has been notified of a potential violation of the promotion’s anti-doping policy from an out-of-competition drug test administered on June 28.
Lesnar is among the most popular athletes in both mixed martial arts and professional wrestling. He beat Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in Las Vegas last weekend, handily winning his first MMA fight in nearly five years.
“We will get to the bottom of this,” Lesnar said in a statement.
The AP obtained copies of three letters from the US Anti-Doping Agency to Lesnar, informing the fighter that he had passed tests on three samples submitted over a nine-day period in mid-June, mere days before the sample with the potential violation was collected.
Lesnar, who turned 39 this week, has been rigorously drug-tested since announcing his return to UFC competition last month. Usada typically requires an athlete to submit to testing for four months before a UFC competition, but Lesnar was allowed to be tested in a shorter window because of the short time between his announced comeback in June and his return fight in early July.
Usada, which administers the UFC’s doping policy, received Lesnar’s test results Thursday evening from the Wada-accredited laboratory at UCLA. The test wasn’t processed in time to potentially endanger his participation in UFC 200 on July 9.