Cortney Casey cleared of failed drug test, UFC threatens to leave Texas

After reportedly testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone for her UFC 211 bout on May 13 in Dallas, Texas, opposite Jessica Aguilar, UFC women’s strawweight Cortney Casey has been cleared of all charges after a second sample passed tests by a WADA-accredited lab and a testing laboratory hired by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), per a report by MMAjunkie.

“Basically, she hadn’t done anything wrong,” said Jeff Novitzky, UFC’s VP of athlete health and performance.

Novitzky explained that Casey’s “B” sample came back negative for banned substances and synthetic testosterone, yet her case is still listed as “under for review” by TDLR. This comes after TDLR overturned her victory over Aguilar to a no contest, suspended Casey for 90 days, and fined her anywhere between $2,000 and $5,000.

“It’s burning me up because the whole process has been unfair to begin with, and here we are 36 hours later,” said Novitzky, who confirmed that Casey’s secondary test results were passed along to all necessary parties.

“This girl should be cleared publicly, and she hasn’t been yet,” he said.

Seeing as the commission came down pretty hard and abrupt on a fighter who ended up doing nothing wrong, it doesn’t bode well for the state moving forward. In fact, UFC may avoid Texas all together if these sort of issues persist.

“I think it’s pretty extreme, but thinking through things, if these problems aren’t fixed, the only recourse may be that we don’t make our athletes subject to this, and in the future, we can’t go to Texas,” Novitzky said. “I don’t think it’s going to get to that level, but certainly that’s been a topic of discussion.”

Susan Stanford, a TDLR spokeswoman, declined to comment on the matter. Casey, however, was more than willing to defend her case.

“I just want things to be right,” Casey told MMAjunkie. “There have been mistakes. It’s just been an extreme lack of professionalism on their part. I really hope everything gets fixed and I can move on from this. But the way it looks, it’s not going to be that easy.”

Casey added that she has had minimal contact with TDLR throughout the entire ordeal, but revealed she received a phone call in early June from a TDLR inspector who asked, “What did you take to elevate your testosterone?”

As of now, the TDLR is in the UFC doghouse. If mistakes were made and a fighter was dragged through the proverbial mud for no reason, the commission needs to remedy that quickly. If not, the greatest show on canvas may leave Texas entirely and take its business elsewhere.

Stick with Mania as updates regarding Casey are revealed.