USADA hits Frank Mir with two-year suspension for banned substance

Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir has been dealt a two-year suspension by United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for failing an in-competition drug test following his bout with Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 85 last year. The promotion announced the news earlier today (Fri., April 21, 2017).

Mir, 37, tested positive for a long-term metabolite of dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT) and will have his suspension retroactively dated back to April 8, 2016, making him eligible to return in nearly 11 months. It was the first time the MMA veteran failed any sort of drug test in his professional career and a mistake that Mir attributed to eating Kangaroo meat.

USADA released the following explanation:

“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 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. 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.”

Remember, Mir previously stated that he’d likely retire if he was dished out a two-year suspension. If he sticks to his guns, his first-round knockout loss to Hunt over one year ago will be the last image fight fans have of Mir competing inside of the Octagon. Before this run-in with USADA, Mir was widely considered one of the best heavyweights in UFC history.

What say you, Maniacs? Is Mir’s UFC legacy in tact despite this news?

Stick with Mania as a reaction from Mir will be sure to follow.