UFC 244 controversy: 5 other major UFC fights that were put into jeopardy by drug tests
UFC 244 is all set to be one of the biggest shows of 2019 – but as of writing, the main event is currently up in the air thanks to some controversy surrounding one half of the fight, the always-popular bad boy Nate Diaz.
Diaz – renowned for being a clean-living athlete, aside from his outspoken endorsement of marijuana – has supposedly tested positive for trace amounts of a “prohibited selective androgen receptor”.
The UFC has yet to confirm whether the fight is still on, although ESPN has reported that USADA has not yet provisionally suspended Diaz. This isn’t the first time, though, that drug tests have placed questions marks over big fights in the UFC.
Here are 5 other times that drug tests have placed major UFC fights in jeopardy – and what happened.
#1 UFC 47: Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski
Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski went on to have one of the most storied rivalries in the history of the UFC Heavyweight division, but the planned first meeting between the two actually ended up being cancelled under dubious circumstances.
A fight between the two was first mooted back at UFC 44, when Sylvia defended his UFC Heavyweight title successfully against Gan McGee, while Arlovski knocked out Vladimir Matyushenko. But in the aftermath of the show, Sylvia tested positive for the banned substance stanozolol and was handed a six-month suspension, forcing him to vacate the title.
Seven months later, a fight between Sylvia and Arlovski was put together for the vacant title, but the day before the show, news emerged that Sylvia would not be able to fight. It was then revealed that he’d tested positive for stanozolol again – but this time with a bit of a twist.
In a precursor to the Jon Jones situation of 2018, the UFC announced that Sylvia’s positive test actually stemmed from the initial dose of the drug he’d admittedly taken the year prior, and hadn’t quite cleaned out of his system in time. That wasn’t enough to save the fight, though – and Arlovski fought Wesley Correira on the undercard instead, and had to wait another year to face Sylvia.