Nicolau left the UFC SP card. Photo: Brandon Magnus/UFC
The UFC Fight Night São Paulo card, an event that takes place on November 19th, was missing. Matheus Nicolau, tenth in the flyweight rankings, was removed from the show after showing an irregularity in a surprise anti-doping test.
See too
The UFC confirmed that its partner, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), detected something unusual in a sample collected on October 13th. Thus, even though the irregularity was not disclosed, Nicolau was provisionally suspended, which left Ulka Sasaki without an opponent for the event.
The fighter published a statement on his Instagram account in which he expressed surprise at what happened. “Like you, I was surprised last night [3] with notification from USADA about my potential violation of the anti-doping program. I never took the substance alleged in the test and, until yesterday, I didn't even know it existed. (…) Now, my immediate objective is to take all necessary measures to find out what happened and prove my righteousness. Once again, I reiterate my astonishment with the result of the exam, as I have never, in my eight years of career, used illicit substances to increase performance,” he wrote.
Nicolau, 23 years old, has already had two fights in the UFC. In the first of them, he beat his colleague from TUF Brasil 4 Bruno Korea by completion. Afterwards, he overcame former title challenger John Moraga.
[vox id=”47890″]
Comments