Brock Lesnar Fails A Second USADA Drug Test
The United States Anti-Doping agency has informed the UFC and Brock Lesnar that the ex-WWE and UFC heavyweight champion has failed yet another drug test. It was revealed last week that Lesnar had failed a pre-fight drug test that was administered on June 28, just about two weeks prior to his return at UFC 200 on July 9.
It was also revealed that Lesnar had passed five of his first six USADA tests leading up to his bout with Mark Hunt, and after it became public that he’d failed a pre-fight drug test, Lesnar released a statement saying “we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
The substance that Lesnar tested positive for in his first failed tests isn’t yet known, but, according to ESPN, the substance is clomiphene, which is the exact same thing that Jon Jones tested positive for. Clomiphene is an estrogen blocker, which is typically used by athletes when they’re coming off of a steroid cycle.
According to the USADA’s public records, Lesnar was tested eight times leading up to UFC 200, and he failed his sixth and seventh tests. The results of the eighth test haven’t yet been revealed, and we’ll probably get those within the next couple of days.
WWE, which is who Lesnar works for currently, hasn’t taken any action against their former champion. As of this writing, the only thing they’ve done is post a short article on their official website, which told us everything we already knew.
Lesnar is currently scheduled to return to WWE at next month’s SummerSlam, where he’ll be taking on Randy Orton in a longtime dream match, and all signs seem to be pointing to WWE going through with that match, despite what’s been going on with the ex-UFC heavyweight champ.
#TheBeast heads to #RAW as @StephMcMahon & @RealMickFoley select @BrockLesnar in the 2016 #WWEDraft! pic.twitter.com/gwwEZbLQLf
— WWE (@WWE) July 20, 2016
On Tuesday, WWE did a brand extension draft, and Brock Lesnar ended up being one of the top picks. His USADA failures weren’t brought up during the show at all, and when his name was announced, the live crowd went crazy for him, so it’s clear that his USADA failures haven’t negatively impacted his popularity in the professional wrestling world.
The UFC paid Brock Lesnar the largest purse in company history ($2.5 million) to get him to compete at UFC 200. That figure is expected to get even larger once the pay-per-view numbers come in, as the show is expected to do well over one million buys, and Lesnar is going to get a large percentage of the pay-per-view revenue. Of course, he’ll probably have to give a lot of that money up after his hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, because he’ll likely be hit with a multi-million dollar fine.
Lesnar, who just turned 39, wasn’t sure if he was going to compete again after his win over Mark Hunt, and now, due to the USADA rules which call for a two-year suspension for a first offense, he may never fight again. Of course, there is a chance that he can make the tainted supplement argument that has worked for other UFC fighters over the last year or so, and if he’s successfully able to make that argument, his suspension will be cut down to six months.
Also, because of the fact that Brock Lesnar has not yet officially retired from mixed martial arts, he’s still subject to the random USADA testing. So, if they wanted to, the USADA could show up at Brock Lesnar’s front door as early as tomorrow morning to test him again. The only way for Lesnar to be exempt from the testing pool is if he officially retires.
Right now, it looks like Brock Lesnar’s MMA career is over. But his WWE career is still alive and well, assuming WWE doesn’t decide to take action against him.
[Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images]
