Yair Rodriguez Handed a Six-Month Suspension By USADA

Yair Rodriguez is one of the best featherweights in the world. ‘El Pantera’ has been in the promotion for six years now and in the process has established himself as one of the finest fighters at 145-pounds. 

Injuries have not been kind to ‘El Pantera’ who has been out since his last fight in October 2019. He fought only twice in 2019 and once the year before. Recent developments suggest that Rodriguez will now have to wait till early 2021 till he can compete again. This is due to a six-month suspension handed to him by the USADA. 

Read: Dana White says Yair Rodriguez will not fight anytime soon in the UFC

Yair Rodriguez to make a comeback in March 2021

On Thursday, the USADA announced that they would suspend Yair Rodriguez for six months as he violated the UFC’s anti-doping policy. ‘El Pantera’ failed to share his location for testing three times in the past 12 months. 

The official statement by a USADA official said, “Like all UFC athletes, Rodriguez, 28, is a member of the UFC Registered Testing Pool and is therefore subject to certain Whereabouts responsibilities, which allow him to be located for testing. Accurate Whereabouts information is a crucial component of an effective out-of-competition testing program because it enables anti-doping organizations to conduct no-notice sample collections, which helps maintain effective doping deterrence and detection”

The statement continued, “Rodriguez failed to update his Whereabouts information and was unavailable for testing at locations provided in his Whereabouts Filings on three occasions. He accrued a Whereabouts Failure in each of the first three quarters of 2020. The accumulation of three Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period constitutes a policy violation under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.”

‘El Pantera’s’ third whereabouts failure was made on September 8th. This means that he will be eligible for a comeback in March 2021. 

Rodriguez fought last October and claimed the fight of the night performance against Jeremy Stephens. He was set to take on Zabit Magomedsharipov this year. However, MMA fans will have to wait till March 2021 before they can see him back in action.