When Yoel Romero was awarded $27.45 million in damages following a positive drug test
Fighters often get caught up in PED-related issues. Yoel Romero was one such fighter who found himself embroiled in a tremendous amount of controversy after tested positive for a banned substance. May 28th, 2019, saw him vindicate himself following a lawsuit. However, following a series of developments, the damages that he was paid were significantly lower.
His name was soon cleared of any wrongdoing after it was revealed he had tested positive for a banned substance after consuming a batch of tainted supplements. This resulted in Yoel Romero conceding a ban from active competition at the behest of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
This prompted the 'Soldier of God' to bring a suit against Gold Star Performance Products. The lawsuit saw Romero walk away with a whopping $27.45M, as was revealed by his agent, Ibrahim Kawa.
Yoel Romero failed a USADA test for a contaminated substance
He then proceeded to sue the supplement company who made the contaminated substance
He won the case and has been awarded damages to the tune of...
$27.45 million!
https://t.co/fOo1ORZwOg
Did Yoel Romero really get paid that much money?
Although the ruling passed years ago, Yoel Romero never received a dime until recently. What's more, the windfall that Romero was initially slated to receive took a huge hit over the course of time.
Yoel Romero was owed around $3M for lost wages, emotional distress and reputable damage, respectively. The amount was to be trebled owing to New Jersey's consumer laws when it comes to consumer fraud.
Although he was paid the trebled amount of damages for lost wages, the same could not be said for the other clauses.
His damages award took a massive hit after it was declared that 'emotional distress' could not be constituted as an ascertainable loss. Therefore, the trebled amount was consequently reduced to the initial sum.
The final clause of his lawsuit referred to reputable damage that occurred due to his suspension by USADA. However, the assessment of this clause was remanded to a trial court to be evaluated at a later date. Therefore, as things stand, the 'Soldier of God' stands to earn a total of around $12.45M for lost wages and emotional distress.