UFC Heavyweight Frank Mir Officially Suspended 2 Years for Anti-Doping Violation
More than a year after his last Octagon appearance, Frank Mir has finally received his official punishment from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
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“Mir, 38, tested positive for a long-term metabolite of dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT), following an in-competition test conducted on March 20, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 85 in Brisbane, Australia. DHCMT is a non-Specified Substance in the class of Anabolic Agents and prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List,” the statement read. “The finding of a long-term DHCMT metabolite in Mir’s sample, which was identified through a new detection method by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Tokyo, Japan, led to Mir being provisionally suspended from competition on April 8, 2016.
“Upon learning of the positive results of the sample analyzed in
Tokyo, USADA had all previously collected stored samples for Mir
reanalyzed at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Salt Lake City,
Utah (SMRTL), which had also recently implemented methodology for
the detection of newly identified long-term DHCMT metabolites,” the
statement continued. “As a result of the additional analyses, SMRTL
discovered that an out-of-competition sample Mir provided on
February 5, 2016, which had previously been reported to USADA as
negative for the presence of prohibited substances, was also
positive for the same long-term DHCMT metabolite found in Mir’s
in-competition sample.”
Shortly after the failed test, Mir revealed that his ‘B’ sample was retested and also came back positive. The heavyweight denied taking performance enhancing drugs and even speculated that the result occurred because of tainted kangaroo meat eaten while in Australia. Mir elected to bypass the appeal process due to potential expenses.
Mir later requested his release from the UFC to pursue other career options. Mir’s suspension is retroactive to April 8, 2016, when he was provisionally suspended from UFc competition.
"As of now I'm under suspension, as of April 2018 I'll be eligible to fight again the UFC, and even more, as troubling as that is, they have it to where I can't do any broadcasting," Mir said on “The MMA Hour” last July. "Not that I was ever going to get it in there, just because I've been asking for several years since the WEC since put this in the rotation, right now I'd like to be released by the UFC so I can continue my career in other avenues.”
The former heavyweight champion compiled a 16-11 record during his UFC tenure, earning wins over the likes of Antonio Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Roy Nelson, Mirko Filipovic, Brock Lesnar and Tim Sylvia over the course of his career. The submission specialist has lost six of his last eight fights. All but two of Mir’s 29 career bouts occurred in the Octagon.
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