Augusto Mendes

Even when USADA does something right, they screw it up. USADA boned Tom Lawlor back then and they did it again today (Apr. 23). Today the UFC's USADA slumlords announced the suspensions of former UFC women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montaño, prospect Sean O’Malley, Augusto Mendes and Marvin Vettori. They all basically got put on the shelf for six months because of some trace amounts of ostarine. Here's the thing What happened was Lawlor lost two years of his fighting career because USADA claimed he tested positive for ostarine. Two years? And USADA is handing out retroactive six month suspensions like it's candy? WTF. From the USDA press release: “The trace amounts of ostarine found in each of the athlete’s samples was made possible by sensitive laboratory detection capabilities, However, as detection windows increase and the potential time between ingestion and detection lengthens, it has become more difficult for athletes to identify a contaminated product that may be the source of their positive test. As a consequence, the investigation period in ostarine cases is frequently relatively long, as has been the case in each of the cases announced today.” Uh huh. One day the MMA world will look back at the USADA era and just shake our heads. The UFC used USADA, like Reebok, in an attempt to bring their company more mainstream. In reality it probably worked, simply for the fact Zuffa sold out to the tune of $4 billion dollars and the promo eventually landed a sweet ESPN TV deal. Props to the giant corporation, you got one over on everyone at the expense of your workforce (the fighters). Maybe Tom Lawlor will become a cautionary tale about USADA? Or maybe this leach will continue to suck the UFC dry until the end of the time? It's MMA so it could really go either way at this point.